Journal of Learning and Character Education (JLCEdu) takes its responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content for all end users very seriously. Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined below. JLCEdu places great importance on the authority of articles after publication, and our policy is based on COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) best practices in the academic publishing community.
1. Erratum
An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions made during the research or writing process. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be clearly noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but a notice of erratum is provided. The Erratum notice is made freely available to all readers and is linked directly to the original article.
2. Retraction
A Retraction is an official notice stating that the paper should no longer be regarded as part of the scientific literature. Retractions are issued under the following circumstances:
- There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, whether as a result of misconduct or honest error;
- The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper referencing, permission, or justification;
- The work is found to contain plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
- The work reports unethical research practices.
To protect the integrity of the scientific record, the retracted article is not completely removed from the online journal; instead, a notice of retraction is published, made freely accessible to all readers, and linked to the retracted article. Retractions may be requested by the authors upon discovering substantial errors, or issued by the Editors/Publisher when deemed appropriate. In all cases, the notice specifies the reason for the retraction and who initiated the decision. If a retraction is published without unanimous author consent, this is explicitly noted. In rare and extreme cases involving legal infringements, the Publisher may redact or remove an article while retaining bibliographic metadata to preserve the historical record.
3. Publisher's Note
A Publisher's Note notifies readers that an article has been corrected subsequent to publication due to typographical, layout, or production errors caused by the publisher that affect article metadata (such as author names, affiliation, or titles) or significantly impact readability. Minor publisher errors that do not affect the metadata integrity or scientific comprehension are corrected at the discretion of the Publisher.
In such cases, the original article file is updated with the corrected version, along with the date of correction. Authors should note that an original article can only be replaced with a corrected version if requested within one year of the original publication date. Corrections requested after one year will be documented via a separate Publisher's Note.
For further ethical standards, JLCEdu follows the standard COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles.