2.6 Retraction of Scientific Papers

The reproducibility of findings reported in scientific publications is a major hallmark of the validity of science. If fellow scientists follow the same procedure described in a scientific publication, they would expect to be able to reproduce the findings in the original publication to a great extent. However, if numerous attempts by different scientists could not reproduce the original findings, then scientists may start to question the validity of the original publication. The retraction of a scientific article is a formal action that is taken to purge the article from the scientific literature on the ground that the article in question is not trustworthy and therefore no longer qualified to be part of the intellectual basis of scientific knowledge.

Monitoring and tracking retracted articles has become increasingly challenging. The rate of retraction from the scientific literature has been steadily increasing. For example, retractions in MEDLINE have increased sharply since 1980. Reasons for retraction include errors or non-reproducible findings (40%), research misconduct (28%), redundant publication (17%) and unstated/unclear (5%) (Wager & Williams, 2011).

Reasons for retraction

What are the most common reasons that lead to the retraction of an article? How effective does a retraction serve these reasons? Do scientists simply make mistakes with good faith or some of them intended to cheat with deliberate misconduct?

Time to retraction – How long does it take on average from the publication of a scientific article to its retraction? What are the factors that may influence the time to retraction?

Post-retraction citations– How does the retraction of an article affect citations to the article? What are the reasons for continuously citing a retracted article?

Cause of concern – How was an eventually retracted article noticed in the first place? Are there any early signs that one can watch for and safeguard the integrity of scientific publications? What are the possible ways that a retracted article may damage the scientific literature?

References

• Chen, C., Hu, Z., Milbank, J., Schultz, T. (2013) A visual analytic study of retracted articles in scientific literature. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(2), 234-253. DOI: 10.1002/asi.22755
• Wager, E., & Williams, P. (2011). Why and how do journals retract articles? An analysis of Medline retractions 1988-2008. J Med Ethics, 37, 567-570