Suspicion of misconducts will be investigated by the journal and/or publisher. The authors will be contacted for clarification and addressing the issues. Depending on the investigation results, one of these actions might be implemented by the journal and/or publisher:
a. Returning the manuscript to the author during the peer-review process.
b. Rejecting the manuscript during the peer-review process.
c. Placing correction with an explanation in the published article.
d. Placing editorial concern with an explanation in the published article.
e. Retracting the published article. In this case, the article will be watermarked “retracted” with an explanation, the author’s institution will be informed, and a notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system will be included.