Corrections, Retractions & Article Removal Policy

Virtual Economics is committed to maintaining the integrity, reliability and transparency of the scholarly record. Where errors, misconduct or ethical concerns are identified in published material, the journal will take appropriate action in accordance with recognised international publishing standards and editorial best practice.

Post-publication actions may include corrections, addenda, expressions of concern, retraction or removal, depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

Erratum

An erratum is issued to correct errors introduced during the production or publication process by the journal or publisher, including formatting mistakes, incorrect metadata, file processing errors, tables, figures or DOI information. Such corrections do not affect the scientific conclusions of the article. The correction will be published in a separate notice electronically linked to the original article.

Corrigendum

A corrigendum is published when authors identify errors in their article that do not invalidate the results or overall conclusions. The notice will describe the correction and will be permanently linked to the original article.

Addendum

An addendum may be published to provide additional information that was not available at the time of publication but is necessary for the clarity, interpretation or completeness of the research. The addendum will be linked to the original article and will not alter the publication date of the Version of Record.

Expression of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be issued when the editors have reason to believe that significant problems may exist in a published article but a full investigation is ongoing and conclusive evidence is not yet available. The notice informs readers of the concern and remains associated with the article until the matter is resolved. The editors may also contact the authors’ institutions or relevant oversight bodies where appropriate.

Retraction

An article will be retracted when its findings are unreliable due to serious error, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, unethical research practices, duplicate publication, unethical authorship practices or other major breaches of publication ethics. Retraction notices clearly state the reasons for the retraction and remain permanently accessible. The original article will not be removed but will be clearly marked as retracted in order to preserve the scholarly record.

Article Removal

In exceptional circumstances, an article may be removed when required by law, court order or where the content infringes legal rights or poses a significant risk of harm. In such cases, the article text will be replaced by a removal notice explaining the reason for the action while retaining the bibliographic information.

Withdrawal Prior to Publication

Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript after acceptance but before online publication in justified circumstances. The editorial office will evaluate such requests and may approve withdrawal where appropriate. Withdrawal requests must include justified circumstances and may not be used to avoid peer review outcomes or editorial decisions. Once an article has been published online as the Version of Record, withdrawal is no longer possible and the post-publication actions described above will apply.

Policy on Author Name Changes

Virtual Economics recognises that, in certain circumstances, authors may request a change to their published name. Such requests may arise for personal, legal or professional reasons, including changes related to marriage, divorce, gender identity, religious conversion or personal safety.

Upon receipt of a formal request submitted by the author to the Editorial Office, the journal will update the author name in the online version of the article and revise the associated metadata. Updated metadata will be communicated to indexing and abstracting services where technically possible and subject to the policies of those services.

To protect the privacy and dignity of authors, the journal does not publish a correction notice in connection with an author name change and does not require notification or consent from co-authors. The change is implemented without public disclosure of the reason.

Requests must be submitted directly by the author concerned and must include sufficient information to verify authorship of the publication. The editorial office may request confirmation of identity where necessary. Changes are applied only to the author’s name and do not affect authorship order, contribution statements or citation information beyond the updated metadata. The DOI and the publication record remain unchanged.

All correction, retraction or removal notices are published promptly, are freely accessible and are clearly linked to the original article. The journal informs relevant indexing and abstracting services, including Crossref, where necessary.