Concerns About Research Ethics in COVID-19 Publications

Mansourzadeh, Mohammad Javad; Shamsi, Amrollah

doi:10.1177/1010539520956439

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Since February 20, 2020, 137 scientific papers have been published per day, on average, on the topic of COVID-19 [ 1 ]. Universal hurry related to the production of scholarship on the pandemic has increased the speed of scientific productivity and researchers' inaccuracy and has accelerated the review process, inviting a greater likelihood of research misbehavior [ 2 ]. Thus, the rapid growth of COVID-19 literature has led to a major, unfortunate outcome; the ratio of retracted articles is much greater, compared historically, than that for other research topics [ 1 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scientific misconduct is “fabrication, falsification or plagiarism in proposing, performing or reviewing research or in reporting research results” according to the US Office of Research Integrity [ 4 ]. Serious deficiencies in the quality of empirical findings and conclusions drawn by these articles [ 5 ] could undermine scholars' trust in their reported results [ 2 ]. Furthermore, retractions can have negative consequences for authors [ 6 ] and lead to irrecoverable injuries for patients if improper methodologies or findings from these retracted studies are employed in clinical settings [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sharing of retracted COVID-19 articles: an altmetric study

Shamsi

Lund

SeyyedHosseini

2022

jmla

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Objective: This study examines the extent to which retracted articles pertaining to COVID-19 have been shared via social and mass media based on altmetric scores. Methods: Seventy-one retracted articles related to COVID-19 were identified from relevant databases, of which thirty-nine had an Altmetric Attention Score obtained using the Altmetrics Bookmarklet. Data extracted from the articles include overall attention score and demographics of sharers (e.g., geographic location, professional affiliation). Results: Retracted articles related to COVID-19 were shared tens of thousands of times to an audience of potentially hundreds of millions of readers and followers. Twitter was the largest medium for sharing these articles, and the United States was the country with the most sharers. While general members of the public were the largest proportion of sharers, researchers and professionals were not immune to sharing these articles on social media and on websites, blogs, or news media. Conclusions: These findings have potential implications for better understanding the spread of misleading or false information perpetuated in retracted scholarly publications. They emphasize the importance of quality peer review and research ethics among journals and responsibility among individuals who wish to share research findings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing of retracted COVID-19 articles: an altmetric study

Shamsi

Lund

SeyyedHosseini

2022

jmla

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Reasons such as the global rush to gain more knowledge, the rapid increase in scientific outputs, the carelessness of researchers, and the reduction in time and quality of the peer reviews led to the growth of these retracted articles 2 . Such articles can potentially endanger the health and evidence-based planning for those impacted by the coronavirus 2 . The growth and sensitive nature of retracted papers led to bibliometrics studies on them, although few 3,4 , which focused more on the level of documents.…”

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confidence: 99%

Authorship characteristics of retracted COVID-19 articles

2021

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Following the explosion of publications about COVID-19, some of these articles were retracted. These articles are potentially dangerous to public health as they can mislead about the nature of the virus. The growth and sensitive nature of retracted papers led to bibliometrics studies on them, although few, which focused more on the level of documents. This study, instead, examines the characteristics of the authors of these articles. 54 retracted COVID-19 articles that fit our study’s criteria were identified. The results revealed that 32% of these authors were MD, and about one-fifth of them had a past history of publishing retracted articles. The average number of authors per article was 6. Also, according to their profile in the Scopus, the mean number of documents, citations and their H-index were 61, 3159 and 12, respectively. Women also appeared in one-third of the articles as first and last authors. Continued research about retracted COVID-19 articles can continue to help prevent the further dissemination of questionable research findings.

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Concerns About Research Ethics in COVID-19 Publications

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

Sharing of retracted COVID-19 articles: an altmetric study

Sharing of retracted COVID-19 articles: an altmetric study

Authorship characteristics of retracted COVID-19 articles

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