Corrections and Retractions

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. When necessary, the journal may publish post-publication notices linked to the original article. 

The following are categories of corrections and post-publication updates to peer-reviewed primary research and review-type articles and certain kinds of non-peer-reviewed article types. Substantial errors to Supplementary Information and Extended Data are corrected similarly to amendments to the main article. Except for Editor’s Notes, all categories below are bi-directionally linked to the original article and indexed.

Author Correction

An author correction may be issued when a significant error introduced by the author affects the accuracy, integrity, or clarity of the published article but does not invalidate the overall findings.

Publisher Correction

A publisher correction may be issued when a significant error introduced during editorial production or publication affects the article’s accuracy, integrity, or record.

Addendum

An addendum may be published when important additional information becomes available after publication and is necessary for readers’ understanding of the article.

Expression of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when serious concerns have been raised about a published article, but the investigation is ongoing or inconclusive. This notice alerts readers while preserving due process.

Editor’s Note

An editor’s note may be published when the editor considers that readers should be informed about a relevant editorial matter concerning a published article.

Retraction

A retraction may be issued when the findings or integrity of a published article are substantially undermined by major error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, or other serious breaches of publication ethics. Retraction notices will state the reason for retraction, identify who is retracting the article where appropriate, and remain linked to the original article. The original article will remain part of the scholarly record but will be clearly marked as retracted.

Removal or Replacement

In exceptional circumstances, such as legal necessity or grave risk to participants, the journal may remove or replace content in accordance with legal and ethical considerations while preserving the transparency of the publication record as far as possible.

When making corrections to articles, in most cases, the original article (PDF and HTML) is corrected and is bi-directionally linked to and from the published amendment notice, which details the original error. For the sake of transparency, when changes made to the original article affect data in figures, tables, or text (for example, when data points/error bars change or curves require redrawing), the amendment notice will reproduce the original data. When it is impossible to correct the original article in both HTML and PDF versions (for example, articles published many years before the error is raised), the article will remain unchanged but contain bi-directional links to and from the published amendment notice.