Changes and corrections

Policy for changes and corrections of published material and discussion after publication

Acta Oncologica follows the STM Association guidelines that “Articles that have been published should remain extant, exact, and unaltered to the maximum extent possible”. The conditions of publication with persistent identifiers such as DOIs include that the object published is final and not changed without readers being clearly informed of this.

Articles published in the journal cannot, therefore, be changed without a) an erratum or b) a change notice being published and linked to the original article.

If a factual error in an article is discovered, this should be reported to the editor-in-chief, who decides on possible actions and possible corrections.
Minor corrections will be made directly to the original article (such as minor layout changes/fixes, typos or grammatical issues that do not impact the content or meaning).

Major corrections will be dealt with as follows:

  • Erratum (a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes the correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions) – This is used for errors introduced by the publisher that affect the integrity of the article, the reputation of the authors, or the reputation of the journal. Hence, the corrected article is not removed, but a notice of erratum is given.
  • Addendum (notification of additional information to an article) – This is published when the Editors decide that an addendum is necessary for the readers’ understanding of a significant part of the published paper. An addendum does not contradict the original publication, but if the author omitted significant information available at the time, this material can be added in this way.
  • Retraction (notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature) – This is used if there is clear evidence that the published findings are unreliable, which may be the result of misconduct or an honest error. The published article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of retraction is given as well as the reason for the action and who is responsible for the decision.
  • Corrigendum (notification of a significant error made by the authors of the article) – This is used when an important error is made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal. All decisions on corrigenda are made by the Editors.