Ensuring the Integrity of the Published Record: Croatian Medical Journal Endorses Guidance on Retractions in Scientific Journals by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Abstract

As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) endorses COPE guidance on retractions (1), which has been an important editorial tool for ensuring the integrity of the published record in their journals. The CMJ editors have used article retraction as a way to protect the journal’s integrity, and welcomed the help from experts from the COPE and the World Association of Medical Editors (2). Our experience has shown that guidelines and best practices for editors could serve as tools for editorial work and protection for editorial independence, especially for editors of small, scholarly journals, whose editorial posts are usually based on good will, enthusiasm, and limited professional skills in publishing (3). The awareness of the importance of editorial independence is growing among editors of scholarly journals, as can be seen from several recent examples. For example, the European National Society Cardiovascular Journals published a statement asking the editors and their national societies to “jealously safeguard the editorial independence of their respective national journals” (3). Independence is a great privilege for editors, but it also brings responsibility and occasionally even some unpleasant tasks, such as handling allegations about submitted or published articles and making decision on the correction of the published record (4,5).