{"id":5523,"date":"2018-12-20T10:20:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T10:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2018-12-20T10:20:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T10:20:31","slug":"insights-from-the-new-retraction-watch-database","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2018\/12\/20\/insights-from-the-new-retraction-watch-database\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights from the new Retraction Watch database"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RetractionThe new Retraction Watch Database<\/a> is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind; the long-awaited database includes over 18,000 retractions<\/a> dating back to the 1970s. What\u2019s more, each retraction within the database has been assigned a reason for retraction based on a detailed taxonomy. Working alongside Retraction Watch<\/a>, Science Magazine<\/a><\/em> analysed over 10,000 retracted articles in the database, revealing some key themes<\/a> and challenging a number of common perceptions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Despite a growing absolute number of annual retractions, retraction rates have plateaued; only about four in every 10,000 papers are now retracted.<\/li>\n
  2. Although editorial practices and policing by journals have improved, more editors should step up, particularly those from journals with unusually low historical retraction rates.<\/li>\n
  3. Relatively few authors (500 of >30,000 named in the database) are responsible for a disproportionate number of retractions (approximately 25% of the 10,500 retractions analysed), reported to be typically due to intentional misconduct rather than genuine error.<\/li>\n
  4. Smaller scientific communities have a bigger problem, thought to be a result of under-developed policies and institutions inadequately equipped to enforce rules.<\/li>\n
  5. Around half of retractions in the database involved fabrication, falsification or plagiarism, yet nearly 40% did not involve misconduct.<\/li>\n
  6. Stigma associated with the term \u201cretraction\u201d could be exacerbating the problem; it may be more effective to reserve this \u201cdeath penalty\u201d for cases of intentional misconduct, and to distinguish those which had honest errors or problematic practices as \u201ccorrected\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Past reports<\/a> of retraction rate surges and scientific misconduct shone a spotlight on retraction, leading to increased efforts to eradicate \u201cbad science\u201d. This new Retraction Watch database is an important outcome of these efforts. The authors of Science Magazine\u2019s feature<\/a> \u2014 Jeffrey Brainard<\/a> and Jia You<\/a> \u2014 argue that perceived surges in retractions may be the consequence of \u201ca community trying to police itself\u201d, rather than \u201can epidemic of fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n

    \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

    Summary by\u00a0Emma Prest PhD<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Aspire Scientific<\/a><\/p>\n

    \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

    With thanks to our sponsors, Aspire Scientific Ltd<\/a> and NetworkPharma Ltd<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An analysis by Science Magazine of Retraction Watch\u2019s new database challenges a number of common perceptions surrounding retractions and reveals some important key themes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Insights from the new @RetractionWatch database @sciencemagazine @JeffreyBrainard @jiayoujy #PubPlan #medcomms #ISMPP #EMWA","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_publicize_connection_overrides":[],"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[69542,3267153,906891],"tags":[343162440,343162458,343162459],"class_list":["post-5523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plagiarism","category-reproducibility","category-retraction","tag-academic-publishing","tag-databases","tag-retraction-watch","post-has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Retraction-watch-database.jpg?fit=706%2C494&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Yk5l-1r5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5527,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions\/5527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}