I came across a paper with an interesting title/abstract which was published in a rank-A journal. However, the article is missing from all online listings (Project Euclid, ScienceDirect, etc.) and is also missing from the journal's website. The article has volume, issue, and page numbers x
–y
(listed as such on arxiv). The journal website and other online listings have the previous articles (up to page number x–1
) and the following articles (from page number y+1
), with the article in question just being omitted.
I contacted the journal about accessing the article a couple of weeks ago¹, but still haven't received a reply.
¹ A formal version of "Hey, I tried to access [this paper], but it wasn't available [here] or on your website. Is it possible to access this paper electronically?"
The article itself is posted on arxiv and is listed as a publication on the authors's professional websites.
I am very much interested in the result, but I am not familiar enough with the methods in the paper and it would take me a lot of time reading and working through the details of the paper. Time that would be better spent if the paper was withdrawn for containing errors. I don't quite feel comfortable contacting the authors blindly, asking if their paper contains an error. I can't really use "Please send me a version of your paper" as an excuse, because the paper is published on the arxiv.
What should one do in such a situation? In particular,
- Are papers sometimes withdrawn "without comment"?
- Do publishers usually reply to requests by email?