He said he was sorry

Yes, it can be done:

Hereby I contact you to clarify the situation that occurred with the publication of the article entitled *** which was published in Volume 11, Issue 3 of *** and I made the mistake of declaring as an author. This chapter is a plagiarism of . . .

I wish to express and acknowledge that I am solely responsible for this . . . I recognize the gravity of the offense committed, since there is no justification for so doing. Therefore, and as a sign of shame and regret I feel in this situation, I will publish this letter, in order to set an example for other researchers do not engage in a similar error.

No more, and to please accept my apologies,

Sincerely,

***

P.S. Since we’re on Retraction Watch already, I’ll point you to this unrelated story featuring a hilarious photo of a fraudster, who in this case was a grad student in psychology who faked his data and “has agreed to submit to a three-year supervisory period for any work involving funding from the Public Health Service.” I just love the idea that in 3 years this guy will be applying for NIH funding, competing with real scientists but with the advantage on his part that he can make his proposal look much better by faking data whenever he feels like it.

P.P.S. I have no idea how the above image got on to this post. It has no relevance at all to this topic.