How political situations affect author safety
COPE recommends that each case be assessed carefully based on as much information as possible, and that full records be kept of the actions taken. Where retraction would not normally be warranted on the basis of an author wishing to disassociate themselves from an article, the safety of humans comes before issues of publication ethics. Editors may therefore choose to issue an editorial note indicating the authors’ removal (if possible without retraction of the paper). The publisher should also consider contacting the authors’ institution(s) as long as that would not pose additional threats to any of the authors.
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