Scholarly Record & Post-Publication

The permanent, publicly accessible body of published content, together with its metadata, persistent identifiers and all notices amending or qualifying it, maintained so that what was published, and what has since happened to it, remains discoverable.

The version of an article formally published by the journal as final and citable, bearing its persistent identifier, publication date, licence and complete metadata. It arises on first publication in that form — including online-first publication — and is not created or displaced by later assignment to a volume, issue or pagination. Author manuscripts and preprints are not the Version of Record.

A persistent identifier registered with a recognised agency, resolving reliably to published content or to its status page, never reassigned to different content, and carrying metadata maintained for the life of the record.

The structured descriptive information registered and maintained for published content — including title, authors, affiliations and identifiers, dates, journal and issue information, article type, licence, funding, references, and links to related objects and notices — which enables discovery, citation and status determination.

Arrangements ensuring published content, its supplementary materials and its notices remain accessible independently of any single platform or organisation, through deposit with recognised preservation services, redundancy, durable formats and periodic migration.

A service enabling readers to identify an article’s current status and any updates attaching to it. It records what has happened to an article; it does not certify the reliability of the research.

A citable notice, linked to the article, recording an error materially affecting accuracy, understanding, attribution or metadata where the work remains reliable and its conclusions stand. Distinct from production repairs that cannot affect interpretation, which require no notice.

A citable notice adding supplementary information to an article that remains valid and uncorrected. Not to be used where an error requires a correction or where a concern warrants an Expression of Concern or retraction.

A citable notice alerting readers to serious but presently unresolvable questions about an article — where evidence is incomplete, an external process is pending or delayed, or the persons concerned are unreachable. It is a warning, not a sanction, and is revisited and resolved as soon as the position permits.

A citable notice recording that an article’s findings or content are not to be relied upon, on grounds including fabrication, falsification, invalidating error, serious plagiarism or duplication, unethical research, or manipulation of the publication process. The article ordinarily remains accessible and prominently marked; retraction may proceed without author agreement and is not itself a finding of misconduct against an individual unless so stated on the basis of a determination under C5 or by a competent body.

The published statement effecting a retraction, identifying the article, the party retracting it and the grounds, stating reasons sufficient to inform the record while confined to what the evidence supports.

Exceptional withdrawal of content from public access, confined to binding legal obligation, unlawful content, serious privacy or confidentiality breach, or immediate and serious safety risk that redaction cannot mitigate. Not available because content is embarrassing, controversial or retracted.

The retained bibliographic record and persistent identifier of removed content, resolving to a statement that the content has been removed and, so far as permissible, why and by whose authority.

Scholarly comment on published content — correspondence, commentaries, responses and reader-raised concerns — published under the standards of G3. It forms part of the scholarly record but does not itself amend the Version of Record.

An action that visibly changes, qualifies or explains the status of published content: correction, addendum, Expression of Concern, retraction or exceptional removal under G2.

A rare process in which an article invalidated by an identifiable major error is retracted and a corrected manuscript undergoes complete new editorial and peer review, is published as a new Version of Record with a new persistent identifier, and is linked transparently to the original record.