Requesting a removal

Anyone signed in may ask OSCR to remove something from a paper's record: the whole record, or only part of it. Published rules decide each request, and the answer is given in words. A request the rules cannot decide waits for the operator. At the moment, no human moderator is on duty.

Where to ask

Every paper's page links to its removal request, "Request removal" in its sidebar, "Request its removal" in its Contribute section, which opens /removal/?paper=… for that paper. You can also open the removal page and name the paper by its DOI. Signed out, the page offers to sign in (with ORCID, an author is recognized at once) and brings you back.

Who you are

The form asks you to choose one: an author of the paper (marked verified when your account's ORCID iD is among its authors), the holder of the rights, a person named in the record, or someone else. Anyone may ask. Who asks decides what the rules do with the request (below).

What can be removed

The whole record: The paper's page, its entry in the lists, the lookup, the search and the open data.
Only the copies of the authors' scripts: Their text leaves the site and the open dataset, and the files OSCR does not copy are no longer shown from their source; the files stay listed, with their links to the source.
One repository's copies: The same, for one of the paper's repositories, chosen in a list.
One file: The same, for one file of one repository, chosen in a list.
The tracing map: Its matches, digest, validations and DOI leave the site and the open data; its Map section says it is withheld.

Why

The reasons are: copyright or licence; personal data; wrongly attributed, or not your work; a retracted paper; an incorrect record (the page then first suggests correcting it, which is faster, and still lets you ask); or another reason. For your own data (the contact details the registry keeps privately, or your account), use your data and your rights. That page removes nothing from the record, and it answers access, erasure and objection at once when you sign in with your ORCID iD.

What the form asks

A justification of 30 to 2,000 characters, in your words. It may not hold an email address, because the request is answered in the site and not by email.
An optional evidence link (https only): a licence, a notice, a statement.
Two confirmations: that the information is accurate, and that you understand how requests are decided and what can follow. The rules may apply the request at once, hide copies at once while the operator reviews them, or leave it to the operator, who may accept it in whole or in part, refuse it, or reverse what the rules did.

Review, then send

The page checks the request with the site's own rules, then shows a summary of everything. The request is sent only when you press "Confirm and send". The receipt gives the request's number, its status (open) and what the rules will do with it. Coming back to the page shows the request: while it is open you may complete it (it keeps its number); once decided, it shows the decision and its words, the rules' or the operator's. Your account page lists your requests.

The decision, and when it takes effect

OSCR's machine reads each request within about 10 minutes and applies its published rules (how requests are decided; the removal policy):

from a verified author of the paper (your ORCID iD among its authors, or your claim verified): applied at once, whatever it names;
for the copies of a repository you maintain as its owner or a public member of its organization, on GitHub (or as a maintainer the operator made): applied at once (a contributor's request follows the rules for anyone);
for copies of the authors' code, for copyright or personal data, from anyone: hidden at once until the operator reviews them, and the operator may restore them. At most 3 such requests per account and 30 in all per day are applied this way. A justification sent with 3 requests or more in 7 days, or a request the operator already refused, waits for the operator;
any other request (a whole record, a tracing map, another reason): nothing is removed, and the request waits for the operator, 30 days at most. It is then closed without removal, with how to ask again. A request made for personal data is the exception: the operator answers it within one month, as the GDPR requires, and it is not closed without an answer.

When a request is accepted, what it names leaves every public output at the next nightly publication (at 04:17, the operator's local time): the site, the DOI lookup, the search, the community's facts and the open data. The operator's computer keeps the record, marked withdrawn or withheld, so that the harvester does not bring it back.

Two things cannot be undone outside the site. A copy already published in a Parquet block on Hugging Face stays in that block (a published block never changes); the manifest that points to it is withdrawn, so readers cannot find it. A map's DOI already given stays on Zenodo, because a DOI is permanent; the site stops showing it.

Limits

One request per account and record, which you may complete while it is open. An accepted request is not asked again. A refused or closed request can be asked again only in a way the rules decide at once: as a verified author, as a maintainer of the code it names, or for the copies only, for copyright or personal data.
A request names at most one repository or one file; for more, choose the paper's scripts or the whole record, or say it in the justification.
At most 10 requests a day per account. Signing in is required until the site has a bot check of its own.