Withdrawal Policy

The Editor-in-Chief of ACEE has full responsibility to decide on withdrawal requests in a manner that protects the integrity of the scholarly record and respects ethical publication practices.

When Withdrawal May Be Permitted

  • Article-in-Press (accepted but not yet formally published) was released prematurely due to editorial or production error.
  • Duplicate submission due to administrative mistakes.
  • Detected ethical violations, plagiarism, or substantive data inaccuracies in early versions.

Request Procedure

  • All authors must submit a formal withdrawal request via the submission portal or email to the editorial office.
  • Requests must include manuscript title, submission ID, and clear reason for withdrawal.
  • All co-authors must confirm agreement before withdrawal is processed.

Timing & Possible Fees

Withdrawal requests made before peer review generally incur no penalties. If withdrawal occurs after peer review or during production, ACEE reserves the right to apply administrative fees or decline the request based on resource investment.

To ensure responsible use of editorial and reviewer resources, withdrawal charges may apply depending on the stage at which the manuscript is withdrawn. The following schedule will be used:

  • If the manuscript is withdrawn before plagiarism checking: no fee is charged.
  • If the manuscript is withdrawn after plagiarism checking but before peer review begins: a withdrawal fee of $549 is applicable.
  • If the manuscript is withdrawn after peer review has commenced: a withdrawal fee of $749 is applicable.
  • If the manuscript is withdrawn at the final proof stage (after acceptance and layout/production work): a withdrawal fee of $949 is applicable.

Notification & Implementation

Upon approval, the article’s HTML and PDF versions are removed. Replacement pages indicate that the manuscript was withdrawn, citing the policy. Metadata is updated to ensure transparency for indexing systems.

Denial or Appeals

If a withdrawal request is declined, authors may appeal by providing additional justification. Appeals are reviewed independently by senior editorial members to avoid conflict of interest.

Ethical Considerations

Withdrawal for the sole purpose of submitting the manuscript to another journal is considered unethical and may disqualify authors from future submissions.

Post-Withdrawal Consequences

  • Manuscript cataloged as withdrawn with a public notice.
  • No archiving of original files; metadata manually updated.
  • Repeat submissions without justification may trigger author sanctions or submission bans.