The Journal of Social Work (SÇD) is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record. This page contains our official policies on how published content is updated, corrected, or, when necessary, retracted post-publication.

What is Crossmark? The Crossmark service, provided by Crossref, offers a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By clicking the Crossmark button on our articles, readers can view the current status of the document and verify whether any changes have been made after publication.

For detailed information about our other processes related to these policies, please review the following pages:

• Author Guidelines and Article Template: The formatting rules (use of templates, APA 7 referencing system, manuscript blinding, etc.) and preparation processes that authors must follow when submitting their articles to our journal.
• Publication Ethics and Peer Review Process: How contents are evaluated by editors and reviewers (via double-blind peer review) prior to publication, and the international ethical standards that all stakeholders must adhere to.

Reporting Potential Violations and Errors

Readers and stakeholders can report any significant inaccuracies, data manipulation, or potential violations of scientific research and publication ethics they observe in the articles published in SÇD by sending an email to izuscd@izu.edu.tr. Notifications are reviewed confidentially and meticulously by the editorial board.

1. Corrections

Editors may consider publishing a Correction notice if minor errors (typographical errors, technical inaccuracies in author names, etc.) are detected that do not affect the findings, interpretations, and conclusions in the published article, but may cause confusion for the reader.

2. Retractions

SÇD strictly follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines in cases of article retractions. The editor has the right to retract an article under the following circumstances:

• If there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable as a result of a major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), fabricated data, or falsification (e.g., image manipulation);
• If plagiarism or duplicate publication (dual submission) is detected in the content;
• If copyright infringement or unethical research methods are identified;
• If it is noticed that a critical conflict of interest has not been disclosed.

The following steps are taken during the retraction process:

• A retraction notice is published in the next issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents.
• A persistent link is provided between the original article and the retraction notice in the electronic version.
• The original PDF file remains accessible in the system (for the sake of archival integrity), but a watermark containing the phrase "Retracted" is added to every page of the document.

3. Withdrawals

For manuscripts that are prior to the publication stage (in the peer review or typesetting process), authors may request to withdraw their articles. However, the removal of a published article is subject to the "Retraction" procedure above.

4. Expressions of Concern

If there are serious doubts about the reliability of the research, but the investigation has not yet been concluded, or the investigation appears unfair/inconclusive, the editors may consider publishing an Expression of Concern for the sake of academic transparency.

5. Removal of an Article for Legal Reasons

In exceptional circumstances where the article is found to contain defamatory content, violates the legal rights of others, or poses a significant risk to public health, the text of the article may be completely removed. In this case, the article is replaced by an official page explaining the reason for removal; the metadata of the article (title and author information) is retained for reference purposes.