Written by Mette Bechmann
Ever so often, published research is retracted from even esteemed academic journals. This happens in all academic fields and for a number of reasons – from blatant fraud to undisclosed affiliation with companies or organizations, to concerns about authorship.
Retraction Watch shines a spotlight on retraction in scientific publishing. Whilst retraction notifications issued by journals typically lead quiet lives deep in article databases and far from public scrutiny, Retraction Watch helps create awareness of flawed research amongst researchers, science journalists, and the general public, through their blog.
Retraction Watch has also compiled a database of retractions which can be probed in a number of ways, e.g. by affiliation, journal, or author name. Data starts in 2010 and the database comprises in excess of 50.000 records, mostly in the life sciences but also from the social sciences.
The Retraction Watch website displays a list of the top-10 most highly cited retracted papers – and interestingly, some of the papers have received even more attention post-retraction. Perhaps due to the low visibility of retraction notifications?