Writer's Guidelines and Policy

De-Publishing

OEN takes publishing seriously. Articles are published with the expectation that they will remain published throughout OEN's online tenure. There are, however, rare circumstances where an article may be depublished and removed from the public site; for example, when it comes to editors' attention that a published article violates specific journalism or publishing standards, including:

1) plagiarism

2) demonstrable fabrications, falsehoods or factual errors that are central to the article's premise

3) citations to critical supporting sources that clearly do not contain what is claimed in the article, or other misleading links

4) illegal use of copyrighted images or other copyrighted material

5) an article's content is antithetical to OEN's progressive goals (for example, extoling gun violence or hate groups)

OEN also reserves the right to depublish works in situations where authors attempt to undermine or disrupt publishing activities, or publicly or privately attack OEN editors. This is a very rare circumstance, but one OEN has encountered.

OEN is a volunteer-run site. Occasionally an editor will publish an article that should not have been published based on the criteria above, or other serious problem. When the problem is discovered the article may be depublished, sent back for revision, or rejected.

OEN permits writers to correct articles after publication to fix errors, typos or formatting. Notations are automatically added to the article to indicate a change was made at a specific time. If a writer abuses this privilege and makes edits that substantively change the content or intent of the article, OEN may depublish the article and request a revised article with the new content resubmitted for editorial review.

Depublished articles will remain archived at OEN and made available upon request. Writers whose work has been depublished for one or more of the reasons listed above may petition for a review of their case by submitting documentation that shows the removal was made in error. All petitions are handled on a case-by-case basis.