Zeb S, Akbar A, Gul A, Haider SA, Poulova P, Yasmin F. Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2021;14:1867–1876.
We, the Editors and Publisher of Psychology Research and Behaviour Management, have retracted the following article.
Following publication of the article, the editorial office received notification from a researcher with concerns that, aside from the first author, the remaining co-authors did not contribute to the reported study or the drafting of the original manuscript. The researcher provided evidence demonstrating that the article had been derived directly from their BSc thesis.
When approached for an explanation, the authors were cooperative but were unable to provide sufficient evidence to show they had contributed to the reported study or the drafting of the original manuscript.
Our editorial policies are clear that authors are expected to fulfil specific criteria to warrant authorship and in light of this, the decision was made to retract the article and the authors were notified of this.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.