The publisher of Library Hi Tech wishes to retract Wang Z, Xiao X, Fu S, Shi Q (2024), “Transitioning from inhibition to contextual emergence: investigating the mechanisms underlying the marginalization of county-level public libraries in China”. Library Hi Tech, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. Link to the DOI.
We have been made aware of compromises to the peer review process and editorial handling of this article. Since publication, concerns were also raised that the authors did not report the details of the ethics approval or consent to publish identifiable data for this research within the body of the manuscript which therefore infringes on professional ethical codes.
Additionally, there have also been significant concerns raised about the use of irrelevant references. As a result, the standard of the article does not meet those expected by the journal and the findings of the article cannot be relied upon. The decision to retract has been informed by COPE's guidelines on retractions and Emerald's publishing ethics. Despite numerous attempts to contact the authors, the journal has received no response; the response of the authors would be gratefully received. The publishers of the journal sincerely apologize to the readers.
