Characteristics of retracted editorial articles in the biomedical literature

Abstract

The main purpose of this short communication is to identify and analyze retracted editorials in the biomedical literature. Twenty-five of the 33 editorials are chosen for further analysis. All of the editorials were published as commentaries and concise reviews between 1998 and 2021. Due to plagiarism and data-related issues, the majority of the editorial articles were retracted. Alarmingly, one-fifth of the editorials were funded by external agencies, with the USA leading the list of retracted editorials. The average time between the publication of the editorials and their retraction is 2.48 years, and two editorials were retracted with the longest durations; both were written by the same author. The conclusion is that, at the very least, editorial articles should be devoid of research/scientific misconduct.

Causes for Retraction in the Biomedical Literature: A Systematic Review of Studies of Retraction Notices

“…Two more additional articles were identified through citation searching. Finally, forty-three articles 3 15 16 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 were eligible ( Table 1 ). After a thorough discussion between the authors, the quantitative data of Shimray 53 2022 were presented but weren’t merged as it was considered that there wasn’t enough time for misconduct to have been investigated, due to the short time span of COVID-19-related papers published in 2020.…”

Letter. Journalology: an unrecognized science for a century

“…This applies to editors, as well. For instance, a few editorial articles have been retracted (Elango, 2022). In addition, the Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia recently published an article entitled "A scoping review of retracted publications in anesthesiology"…”

Retractaciones de artículos científicos en medicina. Rectificar es de sabios.

“…La falta de divulgación de conflictos de interés es una preocupación creciente en la investigación médica. Su declaración no invalida el estudio publicado; al contrario, demuestra honestidad por parte del autor/es [5]. Si los autores tienen conexiones financieras no reveladas con la industria farmacéutica u otros intereses, la confianza en los resultados se erosiona [5].…”