One author has just written to withdraw his paper after it has been scheduled for publication. Please advise.

Thank you.

Clement O. Adewunmi
Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (http://www.africanethnomedicines.net/ojs2/index.php/ajtcam)

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If they signed the copyright transfer agreement then it is up to you to concede to their withdrawal.

Your scenario has only happened once to me in 5 years. If the withdrawal request came with a good explanation, appreciation for time spent, and an apology I would just let it go. If it was abruptly withdrawn—as happened to us once, we just made a note not to accept any manuscripts for review from that particular lead author. It is disappointing when things like this happen, especially so late in the process after so much time and effort has been spent—but it isn't the end of the world. Had this happened to me after our layout artist (outside vendor) had copyedited and formatted it for publication, I would ask the lead author to reimburse her for her time, since that is an actual cost that we would have to assume.

Kimberly Taylor
Publications Director, Journal of the National Medical Associatiom

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There must be a very strong reason that the author have asked to withdraw at this stage. I suggest not to publish this type of shady paper.

Ijaz A. Khan
Associate Editor, International Journal of Cardiology

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Unfortunately, such an experience is not uncommon in many journals published in developing countries. Many of authors who do not have a good command of English submit their manuscript to the Journal Office. If the work passes the peer review process, it enters the editing process. After this phase, when the manuscript is almost ready, we may ask the author some minor questions or send him/her the galley proof and the copyright transfer form. And this exactly the point where the author who can see the resulting edited manuscript is arranged in a form that can be presented in better journals, might withdraw and submit his/her work to another journal with a higher profile. The original manuscript could not be presentable to that journal, but thanks to the good work of so many people in the editorial team of the first journal it now can be presented. Many editors working in developing countries witnessed such a problem several times.

Farrokh Habibzadeh

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Tackling such a problem in developing countries needs national resolution. As most authors in those countries are supported by medical universities, it can be a good idea to perform a national code of conduct regarding this unethical issue by the ministry of health in those countries. Mild fines or scientific sanctions can be the first step.

Behrooz Astaneh

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I was just wondering if the author has mentioned any reason for the withdrawal. We need to know the reason for withdrawal before questioning the scientific system of the entire developing world! This is not fair.

Mohammad Reza Mohebbi

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Farrokh Habibzadeh, MD, wrote:
"Unfortunately, such an experience is not uncommon in many journals published in developing countries."

One American journal has a policy in place that prevents the scenario that Dr. Habibzadeh described from occurring with authors from developing countries whose first language is not English. (I will not name the journal here because I do not speak for it; I am a freelance medical copyeditor whose services are used by some of the non-American authors whose work is published in the journal.) After such articles are reviewed, they are accepted for publication on the condition that the authors obtain the services of a freelance copyeditor—at their own expense—to polish their writing. These articles then are reviewed a second time by the journal and given full acceptance. Once the articles are scheduled for publication in a particular issue, the journal's own freelance copyeditor reviews the writing, at the journal's expense, just as for all other articles the journal publishes.

Since the journal instituted this procedure, no authors from developing countries have withdrawn their articles. Perhaps having to pay the expense of getting their articles into the best shape possible makes the authors realize the gravity of their obligation to the journal.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf
KOK Edit
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I guess the experiences of journals are important to reflect on. But let us also remember that the editor of the journal who has requested advice, though from the developing world, has not identified the residence of the author(s). It may not be a developed nation or developing nation author. This does not mean that it is not appropriate to give examples and I appreciate the attention that authors like me, from developing nations, are getting in this discussion. Can we think of a different way to deal with this problem that is non-punitive and reserve the punishment for recalcitrants? We also appreciate that many authors have not yet had the privilege of understanding what editors go through and to them, it may be helpful if they are not punished for lack of knowledge. Although in legal terms, ignorance is no defense, but I guess as educators, editors need to think of other ways before thinking of punishing.

Adamson S. Muula
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These are valid points. I agree that the author in question should not be dealt with in a punitive manner.

The policy of the journal that I wrote about is not meant as punitive. It is meant merely to ensure that the journal's articles are in the best condition possible, to be of the most service possible to readers. But it does have the effect of helping authors to feel that they have more of an investment in the publication of their articles.

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf
KOK Edit

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One possible solution to this problem is assignment of copyright. At our journal, we insist that authors of all papers for which we have asked for revisions send the assignment of copyright form along with the revised manuscript. So at that point, if the article is accepted, the author cannot withdraw it because the journal (or in our case, the society that owns the journal) owns the copyright to that manuscript, not the author. The original journal can publish the paper even if the author wishes to withdraw it. So if the author sends it to another journal, that would constitute duplicate publication which would be illegal and cause for legal actions against the journal (which could plead ignorance), the author, and if the copyright owner desired, the author's institution.

This ignores the whole discussion about who should own the copyright of articles that emanate from publicly funded research. (In fact, our journal no longer requires copyright assignment but rather an Exclusive Licensing Form [ELF] that gives our journal the exclusive right to publish the work, even though the author retains the copyright to it.)

Using the copyright assignment form or ELF would be a reasonable means of preventing an author from pulling a manuscript from a journal that has spent substantial time improving it.

Bill Tierney
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of General Internal Medicine

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This is a common problem, especially with authors from your country. We have followed up such authors (searches online etc) and discovered that in fact many of them send their manuscripts to more than one journal at a time.

We blacklist them and refuse to take their work as it overburdens our editorial staff and reviewers.

James K Tumwine
Editor-in-Chief, African Health Sciences

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I experienced this when I worked as managing editor of AJRH and JMBR, but I think it is wrong to generalize that authors from a particular country do so. Authors from other countries also do it. My impression of such authors is that they are not confident enough to believe that their work could be published in a particular journal so they want to submit to as many as possible. Sometimes, too, it could be a matter of impatience. Some authors would send an article to a journal expecting it to be given "VIP" treatment, and when they don't get it they are dissappointed. It's frustrating, though, but you cannot stop them as long as the article has not been published. I also do not think that you need to blacklist certain people because you have had cases of abrupt withdrawal of manuscripts. I believe every article submitted should be given a fair treatment to the best of your ability. It is not possible to satisfy every author. You don't need to be disturbed that one or two authors are withdrawing their manuscripts, especially if you have many others to work on.

James Falaiye
Science Writer/Editor, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

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James K Tumwine wrote: "This is a common problem especially with authors from your country. We have followed up such authors (searches online etc) and discovered that in fact many of them send their manuscripts to more than one journal at a time.We blacklist them and refuse to take their work as it overburdens our editorial staff and reviewers."

This author is not from my country. The truth is that the problem could be global. The authors of this paper are from China. The paper was submitted in the last week of March, reviewed by Chinese and Egyptian reviewers. The proof was read, and 4 days later, the paper was withdrawn. The paper was handled online.

Thank you.

Clement O. Adewunmi
Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (http://www.africanethnomedicines.net/ojs2/index.php/ajtcam)

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William Tierney wrote:

"One possible solution to this problem is assignment of copyright."

Sending assignment of copyright with revisions seems problematic. As an author, I have often been asked for revisions (sometimes multiple serious revisions) and subsequently had the manuscript rejected. Had I assigned copyright with the revisions, I would have lost right to submit it elsewhere. Usually these manuscripts are accepted first round elsewhere.

As an editor, we usually accept manuscripts that have been revised, but that is certainly not always the case. We ask for an assignment of copyright with the proofs.

Query: What would happen if the author assigned copyright and then the journal changed the manuscript prior to publication? I recently had a set of galleys come back to me that had a lot of errors in it (including listing my institution as a co-author). I corrected them, and presumably the problems will be fixed, but do I have any recourse if that—or other changes—are made AFTER I sign a copyright form?

Nancy Darling
Associate Editor, Journal of Adolescence (www.elsevier.com/locate/adolescence)

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I agree that copyright assignment can work, but if the copyright is assigned and yet another journal is publishing the article then it still amounts to the same thing—withdrawal. Even though the author is not withdrawing the paper officially, one of the journals will not be able to publish it, because of the issue of duplication of publication.

We should also remember that the author can decide to withdraw his copyright notice as long as the work has not been published if he has a strong reason to do so. The author has his rights as well as the journal. In such case the journal may ask him to pay for it, but the payment cannot be enough to compensate for the time and effort expended on the review process.

I think one solution is for journal publishers to interact more with their authors and educate them better. Many of the authors are ignorant of the implications of what they do at times.

James Falaiye
Science Writer/Editor, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

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Dear Clement,
Sorry if I imputed that the culprits are from your country. It can indeed happen anywhere. All I did was to share the experience of our journal. I apologize for any inconvenience.

James K Tumwine
Editor-in-Chief, African Health Sciences

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This would not be the case if advance publication online was in place.

Kevan Wylie
Sexual & Relationship Therapy

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I think you should ask your authors to send their copyrights before saying that the paper is accepted or not, in order to avoid this situation.

Also, you should consider to ask authors to sign a document which automatically transfers their rights to you after submitting a paper.

However, it can takes too much time, so it's your decision. I think you could forbide this author to publish in your journal, and let him go out.

Noel Rojas Bonet
Director de Protomedicos.com, Revista Virtual de Estudiantes de Medicina (http://www.protomedicos.com)

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This is a distressing situation, certainly for the journal, but possibly for the authors. There are many possible reasons for withdrawal of a paper. Have you discovered the authors' reasons for their request to withdraw? Before recommending an action, I would like to know more information before implicating the authors.

Is it possible that they found an ethical problem with the study (eg, falsification of data) and are withdrawing this paper in an appropriate manner (most likely an appropriate action)?

Did the communications about this paper's acceptance get lost, so the authors were unaware that your journal was planning on publishing the paper (an error in communications)?

Did they find another journal that was willing to publish their paper more quickly or did they submit to several journals at once (inappropriate actions on the authors' part)?

I am sure that there are many more possibilities that could be added to this list. Would you mind sharing more of the details about this situation so that the full picture can be reviewed?

Claire Johnson
Editor, JMPT

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Noel Rojas wrote: "I think you should ask your authors to send their copyrights before saying that the paper is accepted or not, in order to avoid this situation.

"Also, you should consider to ask authors to sign a document which automatically transfers their rights to you after submitting a paper.

"However, it can takes too much time, so it's your decision. I think you could forbide this author to publish in your journal, and let him go out."

It is inconvenient and annoying to have an author withdraw a manuscript at the last minute after you've committed resources to it. But it would be devastating to an author to submit a piece and have to transfer copyright to the journal prior to publication just to have it considered. Most papers are rejected and the author would have lost rights to their manuscript and wouldn't be able to resubmit.

We (now) ask authors to affirm a statement upon submission saying that the paper adheres to ethical standards, that all authors have agreed and stand behind the manuscript, that it has not been published elsewhere and will not be submitted elsewhere until they've heard back from us.

It won't stop dishonest people from being dishonest, but it does mean that people shouldn't submit simultaneously to multiple journals out of ignorance.

Nancy Darling
Associate Editor, Journal of Adolescence (www.elsevier.com/locate/adolescence)
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I totally agree with Claire Johnson's comments. We had one author withdraw their paper due to incorrect data and ethical issues as our investigation later revealed.

Comfort Osonnaya
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Medicine (IJM)

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