According to PJMD copyright policy, upon submission of the manuscript copyright belongs to the Journal. Authors can choose to withdraw the manuscript during initial processing but the author will be directed to explain in writing. The policy for withdrawing after peer reviewing is very strict at PJMD and the author may be black listed.
COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS PROCEDURE
Appealing the Acceptance Decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is appropriate or fit for the journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision.
Appealing after Publication Decision
The Editor of the journal is in line with guidance published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including COPE’s retraction guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines). If a published article needs to be retracted, other corrective action or notification to be made to the published article, editors make sure to be done under their supervision. If an author has concerns about a retraction or other action on their published paper (such as a correction or expression of concern), they may contact the Editorial office.
The Editorial Board will also make sure whether the correct procedures have been followed and assess and assured that the author’s concerns have been addressed properly and without prejudice. PJMD will review the paper’s history, peer review and all the correspondence between the author, editor and reviewers.
The author will be advised to give the reason in writing. The journal will resolve issues as swiftly as possible, though sometimes investigations can take several weeks.
In the concern of allowing the retraction process to take place, and clear investigations to proceed without prejudice, we respectfully request that the concern raising complaint allow the process to accomplish before publicly commenting on the case.