Authors are not allowed to withdraw a submitted manuscript, because withdrawal is a waste of valuable resources spent by editors and reviewers to process the submitted manuscript, money, and work invested by the publisher.

If the author still requests to withdraw the manuscript while the manuscript is still in the peer-review process, the author will be subject to a penalty of not being able to submit 1 volume in the future, as a withdrawal penalty to the publisher. However, it is unethical to withdraw a manuscript submitted from one journal if it is accepted by another journal. Withdrawing a manuscript after the manuscript has been accepted for publication, the author will be subject to a penalty of not being able to submit 2 volumes in the future.

If the author does not agree to the penalty, the author and his/her affiliates will be blacklisted from publication in this journal.