How to Withdraw a Manuscript From a Journal

Withdrawing a paper is routine before acceptance and difficult after it. Doing it cleanly protects your co-authors, your next submission and your relationship with the editor.

Guide · 9 min read · Directive Publications Editorial Team

What withdrawal means, and what it does not

Withdrawing a manuscript means asking a journal to stop considering a paper you submitted. It is the author's decision, made in writing, and it ends the journal's handling of that submission.

It is easy to confuse withdrawal with three other events that look similar from the outside:

• Rejection is the journal's decision, not yours. A rejected paper is already free to go elsewhere, so there is nothing to withdraw.
• Removal of an incomplete submission happens before the journal has received a complete submission. Some systems let you delete it yourself, with no request needed.
• Retraction applies to published articles. It leaves a public notice and follows its own process, covered in our guide to correcting the published record.

Knowing which of these you need saves an awkward exchange with an editorial office. Most of this guide is about the middle ground: a complete submission that the journal is still considering.

Good and poor reasons to withdraw

Some reasons are sound and editors see them regularly:

• You have found an error in the data, analysis or figures that changes the results.
• An ethics or consent question has come up that you need to resolve first.
• An author was wrongly included or left out, and the team needs to sort it out.
• The paper went to the wrong journal, or the article type was chosen in error.
• You have doubts about the journal itself, for example after reading its practices more closely.

Others are better handled another way. If the decision is taking longer than you hoped, send a polite status query before anything else. Review times vary widely, and a paper may be close to a decision when you withdraw it. If the reviewers asked for revisions you think are unreasonable, you can usually respond and argue your case rather than walk away.

One reason is never acceptable: withdrawing only after you have already submitted the same paper elsewhere. ICMJE recommendations state that authors "should not submit the same manuscript, in the same or different languages, simultaneously to more than one journal," and that editors may reject such duplicate submissions promptly (ICMJE, overlapping publications). Their rationale is practical: two journals could each claim the right to publish the paper, and both could do the work of peer review and editing without knowing about the other.

How withdrawal changes at each stage

The further a paper has moved through the process, the more people have worked on it and the fewer options you have.

Before the submission is complete

Many submission systems keep unfinished submissions in your author area until you approve the final files. Elsevier's guidance for journals that use Editorial Manager says that authors can remove their own incomplete submission, but only before it enters the editorial workflow, and that the removal cannot be reversed (Elsevier support).

Under consideration or review

Once the editorial process has started, you generally cannot delete the paper yourself. The same Elsevier guidance tells authors to send a withdrawal request to the journal, after which the submission stays visible with a withdrawn status. It also notes a retention period during which the journal office can reinstate a withdrawn submission on request, after which the files are deleted and only basic metadata remain. Other publishers and platforms work differently, so check the instructions of the system you used.

During revision

If you have been invited to revise and do not want to continue, some systems offer a decline-to-revise option that acts as a withdrawal. In Editorial Manager, Elsevier describes a short period during which you can reinstate a declined revision before it is withdrawn. If you are unsure, write to the editorial office instead, because a revision deadline that simply lapses can leave the paper's status unclear.

After acceptance

This is where withdrawal after acceptance becomes difficult. The journal may already have copyedited and typeset the paper, and you may have signed a licence or copyright form. Elsevier's support page asks authors of accepted papers who want to withdraw to contact the journal urgently. Expect the editor to ask for a reason, and be honest. A newly discovered error is a reason editors understand; a better offer from another journal is not.

After publication

A published article is part of the scholarly record and is not withdrawn in the everyday sense. Elsevier's policy, for example, uses withdrawal only for Articles in Press that were published prematurely or duplicated because of an editorial or production error, and handles serious problems with published articles through retraction (Elsevier article withdrawal policy). If you find a problem after publication, talk to the journal about a correction or retraction.

How to withdraw a manuscript, step by step

1. Confirm the reason. Write down in one sentence why you want to withdraw. If the problem is a slow decision, send a status query first and give the journal a chance to reply.
2. Get agreement from all co-authors. Withdrawal affects everyone named on the paper. A request sent without co-authors' knowledge can turn into an authorship dispute, so get each author's agreement in writing, even a one-line email.
3. Read the journal's policy and your agreements. Look for the journal's withdrawal policy, any stated charges, and any licence or copyright form you signed. These decide how much room you have, especially after acceptance.
4. Send a written withdrawal request. Use the withdrawal or email function in the submission system, or write to the editorial office. Include the manuscript number, title, corresponding author, reason, and a statement that all authors agree.
5. Wait for written confirmation. Until the journal confirms, the paper is still under consideration there. If you hear nothing after a week or so, follow up politely and keep copies of every message.
6. Update your records before resubmitting. Save the confirmation with your submission records. Revise the paper in light of any reviewer comments you received, and only then submit it to the next journal.

Step 5 is the one authors skip. A request sitting unread in an inbox does not end the first submission, and submitting elsewhere in the meantime creates exactly the duplicate submission the ICMJE recommendations warn against.

A manuscript withdrawal letter you can adapt

A manuscript withdrawal letter should be short, factual and polite. The editor needs to identify the paper, understand the reason, and know that all authors agree. You do not need to apologise at length or explain your plans for the paper.

Dear Dr [Editor surname],

On behalf of all authors, I am writing to withdraw our manuscript "[Full title]" (manuscript number [ID]), submitted to [Journal name] on [date].

[One or two sentences giving the reason, for example: "Since submission we have identified an error in the analysis of the secondary outcome that affects the results, and we need to repeat the analysis before the work can be considered."]

All authors have agreed to this withdrawal. Please confirm in writing once it has been processed, and let us know if anything further is needed from us.

Thank you for your time and for the work the editorial team and reviewers have put into the manuscript.

Sincerely, [Name], [Affiliation], [Institutional email]

If reviewers have already commented, the thank-you line matters. Editors remember authors who withdraw courteously, and you may want to submit to that journal again.

Fees, silence and pressure

Some journals state a withdrawal charge in their policies, usually for withdrawal at a late stage. Read the journal's withdrawal policy before you submit, not after. If a charge appears that is not published anywhere, or the journal says it will publish your paper anyway unless you pay, treat that as a warning sign and look at the journal against our list of predatory journal red flags.

If the journal does not answer your withdrawal request, keep a dated record of each message and try every contact listed: the submission system, the editorial office address and the editor's published address. Your institution's research office or library may be able to advise on next steps.

Loose ends after withdrawing a submitted paper

Preprints. Withdrawing a submitted paper from a journal does not affect a preprint of it. If you posted the work on a server such as medRxiv, the preprint stays online. medRxiv does not remove preprints; if you withdraw one, it posts a withdrawal statement and keeps the original accessible. Our guide to posting a medical preprint covers when that step makes sense.

Reviewer comments. If reviews came back before you withdrew, use them. The next journal may send the paper to some of the same reviewers, and fixing the problems they raised is the most reliable way to avoid the same outcome.

Funders and registries. If a funder report, trial registry entry or institutional record lists the paper as under review at a named journal, update it.

Cover letter for the next journal. You do not normally need to explain a withdrawal to the next journal, but answer honestly if its submission form asks about previous submissions.

Before you press send

1. The reason is clear and could not be solved with a status query or a revision
2. Every co-author has agreed in writing
3. You have read the journal's withdrawal policy and any charges it lists
4. You know what you signed: licence, copyright form or none
5. The request includes the manuscript number, title and a statement that all authors agree
6. You will not submit elsewhere until the journal confirms in writing

Withdrawal is a normal part of publishing when it is done for a sound reason and in the right order. If you are preparing a submission to a Directive Publications journal, our author guidelines set out what we expect before you submit, and the contact page is the place to raise questions about a manuscript.