Complaints and Appeals
Evidence-based complaints and appeals process for editorial decisions, ethics concerns, conflicts, corrections, and published content.
- Evidence-based rationale required
- Confidentiality is respected where practical
- Independent review where practical
How to raise a concern
Authors, reviewers, readers, participants, or institutions may send complaints or appeals to iwickens@gmail.com. The message should include a clear evidence-based rationale and relevant manuscript, article, issue, correspondence, or policy details.
Categories
- Editorial decision appeals.
- Concerns about editorial process, conflicts of interest, reviewer conduct, or confidentiality.
- Publication ethics or malpractice concerns.
- Requests relating to corrections, retractions, removals, replacements, or expressions of concern.
- Concerns about published content, metadata, authorship, data, or rights.
Possible outcomes
- Clarification of the decision or process.
- Independent editorial review where practical.
- Correction, further review, expression of concern, retraction, or other record-linked notice.
- No change where the complaint or appeal does not identify evidence that affects the outcome.
Confidentiality
otstest seeks to handle complaints and appeals fairly, proportionately, and confidentially where practical. Confidentiality may be limited where legal, ethical, institutional, or scholarly-record obligations require disclosure.