Dear Jeannette Meissner

Hi, in fact, I was trying to figure out whether you are asking for a change in the author's list, or asking about the change in text, figures, or results.

In case of a request for a change in authorship, you may contact the editor but it's a very complicated procedure. But if it's published and assigned with a DOI then no author can be added or removed.

For mistakes in the manuscript, If your paper has been accepted and currently in editing stage, then you must contact the editor to inform the problems present in the manuscript. It can be changed even if in the proof stage. But if it has been published, and is available online then there is nothing you can do, as no one is allowed to make changes to the published version. However, in case of a significant mistake, you may publish an erratum or corrigendum. The last option is to withdraw the manuscript, make the changes and go through the peer review process all over again, subject to all the authors agreeing to withdraw the manuscript.

Most of the time the erratum or corrigendum is published upon the request of the editor due to some errors spotted by the readers. But some serious problems may impose the editor to retract the paper such as fabrictaion of results, plagiarism, falsified data, or any other mistakes that are impossible to be covered in an erratum or corrigendum.

Hopefully, it answers the question.

Hello Muhammad Rayyan Fazal, thank you for the feedback!

It is a manuscript in progress, there was no peer review yet, there is no publication in a journal yet, all co-authors would like to make some corrections in the text together with me (I am the lead author). How exactly can I make these changes in researchgate, or can I upload the corrected version without losing all the previous readers? Kind regards, Jeannette

Jeannette Meissner

Researchgate allows changing the manuscript details following these steps:

But it does not allow changes in the data of manuscripts, preprints, and documents with Reasearchgate DOI. In any of these cases, you will be required to remove the existing item and upload a new one.

If you don't want to lose the previous readers, my suggestion would be to upload the new manuscript with all the required changes, then follow the above procedure for your already uploaded manuscript and edit details to mention "Old Version" and provide the link to the newer uploaded manuscript. I guess in this way you will not lose your old audience and also those who already read it may find a chance to read the newer version.

Best Regards

Muhammad Rayyan Fazal