The Editorial Board of the ARAI Journal of Mobility Technology strongly advises against withdrawing submitted manuscripts, considering the significant commitment of time and resources by editors, reviewers, and other stakeholders in manuscript processing. Before submitting their manuscript, authors should properly evaluate its conformity with the journal's policies and guidelines.

If an author decides to withdraw a manuscript, the corresponding author must make a formal written request to the Editor-in-Chief that includes explicit reasons for the withdrawal and is signed by all authors named in the submission. The request will be reviewed by the Editorial Board, who will then express their decision to the corresponding author. However, if a withdrawal request is submitted after the review process has been completed or after the manuscript has been accepted, the author(s) may be barred from submitting new papers to the journal for up to three years. Withdrawn papers will be saved in the journal's database but will not be further processed.

To avoid manuscript withdrawal, we sincerely request that the authors, particularly the corresponding author, first author, and guarantor of submission, resolve the following issues before submitting the paper as follows:

Manuscript Withdrawal

1. Before accepting: Withdrawal requests sent prior to commencing the peer-review process following plagiarism detection will be considered immediately without explanation, but the author must pay the plagiarism check fees. However, after the review process has begun, the author may remove the paper by citing a strong ethical justification. If we discover an unethical basis for withdrawing a manuscript, we may take appropriate ethical action. The corresponding author should consider all ethical aspects before submitting, such as co-author approvals, institutional approvals, funder policies, simultaneous submission, plagiarism, duplicate submission, and so on.
2. After acceptance: Manuscript withdrawal will not be permitted for the approved manuscript. We do not enable authors to play an unethical game by withdrawing an article after acceptance and submitting it to another journal/publication, wasting valuable editorial and reviewer resources. Before submission, the corresponding author is expected to study all journal/publication-related information on the official homepage and reach an agreement with all co-authors. The corresponding author should also be aware of their country's/institutional/funder's publication policy (if any) and communicate with their co-author before submitting. If the corresponding author believes there is a discrepancy between their country/institutional/funder policy and our journal/publisher policy, they may contact us for clarification using the principal email address listed in the About Us menu.
3. If manuscripts accepted for publication contain scientific errors, are discovered to be accidental duplications of other published article(s), or are found to violate our publishing ethics guidelines, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, reviewer biasing, fraudulent use of data, or research misconduct, they will be handled in accordance with the corresponding ethical misconduct policy.
4. After publication: We acknowledge the importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to scholars and libraries, and we place a high value on maintaining faith in the authority of our electronic archive. In general, the handling editor is solely and independently responsible for determining which submitted manuscripts will be published. The editor makes this decision based on the reviewer's recommendation and the journal/publisher's policies. Articles that have been published must stay intact, correct, and unchanged as far as possible. However, an ethical dilemma may develop if a previously published paper is later revised, replaced, retracted, or even eliminated. This policy tackles these concerns by examining current best practices in the scholarly publishing communities.

Article Retraction

When violations of publishing ethics, such as the use of fraudulent data, research misconduct, multiple submission, plagiarism, and so on, are discovered, a retraction is issued. An article can only be retracted by its authors or editor after a thorough investigation of the situation and assistance from members of the scholarly community. Based on established guidelines by COPE for dealing with retractions, AJMT has adopted the following best practices for retractions.

1. There is conclusive evidence indicating that the conclusions are not trustworthy, either due to significant mistakes (such as miscalculations or experimental errors) or deliberate deception (such as fabricating data or manipulating images).
2. This action can be classified as plagiarism.
3. The results have already been published in another place, and the authors have not properly acknowledged the original sources or informed the editor about the intention to republish. They also did not present a valid reason for publishing the same findings again.
4. It includes content or information that the authors did not have permission to publish.
5. Copyright has been violated, or there is another major legal issue (such as libel or invasion of privacy).
6. There is evidence of flawed peer review or systematic manipulation of the editorial process.
7. There is evidence or material concern about authorship being sold.
8. There is evidence of citation manipulation.
9. The author(s) failed to disclose a significant competing interest (a conflict of interest), which the editor believes would have substantially influenced editors' and/or peer reviewers' interpretations of the work or suggestions.
10. There is proof of any other violation of the journal's publishing policies, and hence the editor has lost faith in the article's legitimacy or integrity.
11. A retraction notice labelled "Retraction: [article title]" is published in a subsequent issue of the journal, paginated, and included in the table of contents. It is signed by the editor and, if applicable, the authors.
12. The electronic version includes a link between the retraction notice and the original article.
13. A screen with the retraction notice precedes the online article. The link resolves to this screen, where the reader can go to the article.
14. The original article remains identical, with the exception of a watermark on each page stating that it is "retracted."
15. The HTML version of the article wil be removed.
16. Any other misconduct that does not compromise the manuscript's scientific integrity (such as an author dispute, institution/funding policy, or simultaneous submission) will not be considered for retraction.

Article Replacement

In circumstances where the article, if followed, could pose a major health threat, the authors of the original article can decide to retract the defective original and replace it with a revised version. In these cases, the retraction procedures will be followed, however, the database retraction notification will include a link to the corrected re-published article as well as a document history.

Article Removal: Legal Limitations

In very few situations, an article may need to be removed from the online database. This will only happen if the article is defamatory or violates the legal rights of others, or if the content is, or we have reason to believe it will be, the subject of a court order, or if the article is acted upon, it could pose a major health risk. In some cases, the metadata (Title and Authors) will be preserved, but the text will be replaced by a screen notifying that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Error in the article

Authors who identify an error in their published paper should contact the journal as soon as possible using the contact information provided on the publication's home page. The corresponding author will be responsible for communicating the inaccuracy to the journal editor. The journal Editor or a chosen representative will assess the proposed correction, as well as any accompanying data or material. They may submit the proposed correction for further peer evaluation. The journal Editor will determine the best way to correct the article. They may also communicate with the journal's editorial team via email for further processing.

Article correction

A Corrigendum will be released if it is necessary to fix an error or omission while maintaining the article's integrity and findings. The Corrigendum should be written by the authors. All authors must agree to publish. The Corrigendum will be linked to the article being corrected. On rare situations, the Publisher may need to correct an error that occurred during the publication of an article. If this is the case, the journal will publish an Erratum to correct the error. The Erratum will be linked to the article being corrected.

In case of any misconduct detected, AJMT holds all rights to disclose the conduct of the authors along with manuscript detail and cannot be held responsible for the any consequences arising from it. Only email communication regarding withdrawal of manuscript will be considered. Withdrawal request should be sent to journal.pub@araiindia.com along with the withdrawal form.

COPE Guidelines References

Retraction guidelines | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics

Withdrawal Management - Clinical Guidelines for Withdrawal Management and Treatment of Drug Dependence in Closed Settings - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)

Duplicate submission and request for withdrawal | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics

Retractions and Expressions of Concern | Wiley

Best Practice Guidelines on Publishing Ethics | Wiley

Article withdrawal & correction | Emerald Publishing (emeraldgrouppublishing.com)