When deciding whether or not to publish your manuscript, an Editor is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by applicable legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

In addition, Editors are also responsible for appropriate, accurate archiving of all published works. Articles that have been published must remain extant, exact and unaltered as far as is possible.

However, very occasionally circumstances arise in which an article is published that must later be retracted or even removed. Such decisions must never be taken lightly, and can only occur under exceptional circumstances, such as:

• Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data and the like.

• Legal limitations upon the publisher, copyright holder or author(s).

• The identification of false or inaccurate data that, if acted upon, would pose a serious health risk.

Each of these instances together with the Elsevier procedures is explained in the 'Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal'.