Academic publishing is a commitment. When an author submits an article to a scientific journal, they enter into a formal relationship with the editorial board. However, it is not uncommon for some authors, for various reasons, to decide that they no longer wish to continue with the editorial process. This situation raises a valid question: is it possible to withdraw an article already submitted to a scientific journal, provided it has not yet been published?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer is yes, but it calls for caution, ethical justification, and adherence to editorial standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authors may encounter various situations that lead them to request the withdrawal of their manuscript. Here are some of the most common and accepted reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most frustrating situations for authors is not hearing from the journal, such as no confirmation of receipt, no assignment of reviewers, and no update on editorial progress, even after several months. Due to this silence, authors may wonder if they can submit their manuscript elsewhere. However, it's not enough to assume their submission has been tacitly withdrawn. In these cases, the proper course of action is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) indicates that the lack of a response does not release authors from their responsibility to verify withdrawal, since the initial submission implied an editorial commitment.1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may happen that, after submission, the author finds methodological errors, interpretation problems, or even ethical issues in the study design. If these errors undermine the validity of the work, it is appropriate to request the withdrawal of the manuscript for further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some authors, after learning more about the journal following submission, discover unexpected conditions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These cases highlight the importance of thoroughly familiarizing yourself with the journal before submitting an article. Reading the editorial policies, reviewing the publication history, and consulting the indexing services are essential steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disagreements may occur among co-authors, such as when one is unaware of the submission or has not approved the final version of the article. In these situations, and if there is no consensus, withdrawing the manuscript is usually the most ethical option, especially to avoid academic conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although submitting the same article to multiple journals simultaneously is strictly prohibited, sometimes it happens unintentionally. If the author openly admits the mistake, they should notify both journals and formally request withdrawal from one, preferably the one that has not yet started peer review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to COPE<\/em>, authors can request to retract their articles, but this is not an automatic right. The final decision depends on the stage of the editorial process and the editor's discretion. If the manuscript has already been reviewed, edited, or accepted, the journal is not required to accept the retraction1,2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n COPE has documented several cases where authors request withdrawal simply because the review was demanding or because the journal took longer than expected. In many of these instances, the editorial boards rejected the request, as there was no compelling ethical justification1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should also be noted that each publisher has its own policies in this area. For example, Elsevier recognizes that there are cases where a request for article withdrawal may be made but emphasizes that it will only be approved under justified conditions: fundamental errors, discovery of plagiarism, simultaneous submission, or ethical violations3<\/sup>. Additionally, it points out that articles already accepted for publication cannot be withdrawn unilaterally by the author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If, after examining the reasons and assessing the process's status, you choose to request withdrawal, we recommend that you follow this procedure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Requesting a withdrawal inappropriately can have consequences such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retracting an article is a valid option when ethical or technical issues justify it. However, it should not be taken lightly. Submitting a manuscript establishes a formal relationship with the journal and requires commitment. That is why ScholarEdit Academy recommends that you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Responsible publishing begins before you hit the \u201cSubmit\u201d button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n La publicaci\u00f3n acad\u00e9mica es un compromiso. Cuando un autor somete un art\u00edculo a una revista cient\u00edfica, inicia una relaci\u00f3n formal con el comit\u00e9 editorial. Sin embargo, no es extra\u00f1o que algunos autores, por diversas razones, decidan que ya no desean continuar con el proceso editorial. Ante esta situaci\u00f3n, surge una duda leg\u00edtima: \u00bfes posible retirar un art\u00edculo ya enviado a una revista cient\u00edfica, siempre que a\u00fan no haya sido publicado? La respuesta es s\u00ed, pero requiere precauci\u00f3n, justificaci\u00f3n \u00e9tica y respeto por las normas editoriales. \u00bfCu\u00e1les son las razones v\u00e1lidas para solicitar el retiro de un art\u00edculo? Los autores pueden enfrentarse a diversos escenarios que los lleven a solicitar el retiro de su manuscrito. A continuaci\u00f3n, se enumeran algunas de las razones m\u00e1s comunes y aceptadas: 1. Falta de respuesta de la revista Una de las situaciones m\u00e1s frustrantes para los autores es no recibir ninguna comunicaci\u00f3n por parte de la revista, ni confirmaci\u00f3n de recepci\u00f3n, ni asignaci\u00f3n de revisores, ni avances editoriales, incluso despu\u00e9s de varios meses. Ante esta falta de respuesta, es razonable que los autores se pregunten si pueden enviar el manuscrito a otra parte. Sin embargo, no basta con asumir el retiro t\u00e1cito. En estos casos, lo correcto es: COPE indica que la ausencia de respuesta no exime a los autores de su responsabilidad de confirmar la retirada, ya que el env\u00edo inicial implic\u00f3 un compromiso editorial1. 2. Errores graves en el contenido Puede ocurrir que, despu\u00e9s del env\u00edo, el autor detecte errores metodol\u00f3gicos, problemas de interpretaci\u00f3n o incluso problemas \u00e9ticos en el dise\u00f1o del estudio. Si estos errores comprometen la validez del trabajo, es leg\u00edtimo solicitar la retirada del manuscrito para revisarlo a fondo. 3. Cambio de decisi\u00f3n sobre la revista seleccionada Algunos autores, al conocer mejor la revista despu\u00e9s del env\u00edo, descubren condiciones inesperadas como: Estos casos reflejan la importancia de familiarizarse a fondo con la revista antes de enviar un art\u00edculo. Leer las pol\u00edticas editoriales, revisar el historial de publicaciones y consultar los \u00edndices de indizaci\u00f3n es una pr\u00e1ctica imprescindible. 4. Problemas con los coautores Puede surgir un desacuerdo entre los coautores, por ejemplo, si alguno no estaba al tanto del env\u00edo o no aprobaba la versi\u00f3n final del art\u00edculo. En estos casos, y si no hay consenso, el retiro del manuscrito suele ser la medida m\u00e1s \u00e9tica, especialmente si se quiere evitar conflictos acad\u00e9micos. 5. Env\u00edo simult\u00e1neo involuntario Aunque est\u00e1 estrictamente prohibido enviar el mismo art\u00edculo a m\u00e1s de una revista a la vez, hay situaciones donde esto ocurre por error. Si el autor reconoce el problema de forma transparente, debe informar a ambas revistas y solicitar formalmente el retiro en una de ellas, de preferencia en la que a\u00fan no haya iniciado revisi\u00f3n por pares. \u00bfQu\u00e9 dicen las pol\u00edticas \u00e9ticas sobre la retirada de un art\u00edculo? Seg\u00fan el Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), los autores pueden solicitar el retiro de sus art\u00edculos, pero esto no constituye un derecho autom\u00e1tico. La decisi\u00f3n final depende de la etapa del proceso editorial y del criterio del editor. Si el manuscrito ya ha sido evaluado, editado o aceptado, la revista no est\u00e1 obligada a aceptar la retirada1,2. COPE ha documentado m\u00faltiples casos en los que los autores solicitan la retirada simplemente porque la revisi\u00f3n fue exigente o porque la revista demor\u00f3 m\u00e1s de lo esperado. En muchos de esos casos, los comit\u00e9s editoriales rechazaron la solicitud, ya que no hab\u00eda una justificaci\u00f3n \u00e9tica de peso1. Tambi\u00e9n es de destacar que cada editorial tiene sus propias pol\u00edticas al respecto. Por ejemplo, Elsevier tambi\u00e9n reconoce que existen casos en que puede solicitarse la retirada de un art\u00edculo, pero enfatiza que solo se aceptar\u00e1 bajo condiciones justificadas: errores fundamentales, descubrimiento de plagio, env\u00edo simult\u00e1neo o violaciones \u00e9ticas3. Adem\u00e1s, se\u00f1ala que los art\u00edculos ya aceptados para publicaci\u00f3n no pueden ser retirados por decisi\u00f3n unilateral del autor. \u00bfQu\u00e9 pasos seguir para retirar correctamente un art\u00edculo de una revista? Si despu\u00e9s de considerar las razones y evaluar el estado del proceso decide solicitar el retiro, le recomendamos seguir este procedimiento: \u00bfQu\u00e9 riesgos existen si el retiro de un art\u00edculo se solicita inapropiadamente? Solicitar el retiro de forma inadecuada puede acarrear consecuencias como: Responsabilidad desde el primer clic Retirar un art\u00edculo es una opci\u00f3n v\u00e1lida cuando existen razones \u00e9ticas o t\u00e9cnicas que lo justifiquen. Pero no debe tomarse a la ligera. El env\u00edo de un manuscrito inicia una relaci\u00f3n formal con la revista y exige compromiso. Es por ello por lo que, desde ScholarEdit le recomendamos que: Una publicaci\u00f3n responsable empieza antes de apretar el bot\u00f3n \u201cEnviar\u201d. Fuentes<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,16],"tags":[106,108,107,71],"class_list":["post-7002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formacion","category-publicacion-cientifica","tag-autoria-cientifica","tag-escritura-academica","tag-etica-en-la-publicacion","tag-revistas-cientificas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholareditacademy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Serious errors in content<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Change of decision regarding the selected journal<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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4. Problems with co-authors<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
5. Unintentional simultaneous submission<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
What do ethical policies say about article retraction?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What steps should be taken to withdraw an article from a journal correctly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What are the risks of requesting the withdrawal of an article inappropriately?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Responsibility from the first click<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sources<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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