Retractions in general and internal medicine in a high-profile scientific indexing database

Abstract

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Increased frequency of retractions has recently been observed, and retractions are important events that deserve scientific investigation. This study aimed to characterize cases of retraction within general and internal medicine in a high-profile database, with interest in the country of origin of the article and the impact factor (IF) of the journal in which the retraction was made. DESIGN AND SETTING: This study consisted of reviewing retraction notes in the Thomson-Reuters Web of Knowledge (WoK) indexing database, within general and internal medicine. METHODS:The retractions were classified as plagiarism/duplication, error, fraud and authorship problems and then aggregated into two categories: "plagiarism/duplication" and "others. " The countries of origin of the articles were dichotomized according to the median of the indicator "citations per paper" (CPP), and the IF was dichotomized according to its median within general and internal medicine, also obtained from the WoK database. These variables were analyzed using contingency tables according to CPP (high versus low), IF (high versus low) and period (1992-2002 versus 2003-2014). The relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated for plagiarism/duplication. RESULTS: A total of 86 retraction notes were identified, and retraction reasons were found for 80 of them. The probability that plagiarism/duplication was the reason for retraction was more than three times higher for the low CPP group (RR: 3.4; 95% CI: [1.9-6.2]), and similar results were seen for the IF analysis. CONCLUSION: The study identified greater incidence of plagiarism/duplication among retractions from countries with lower scientific impact. RESUMO CONTEXTO E OBJETIVO:Recente aumento da frequência de retratações tem sido observado, e retratações são eventos importantes que merecem investigação científica. O objetivo do estudo é caracterizar casos de retratação na área de medicina geral e interna em banco de dados de alta visibilidade, com interesse no país de origem do artigo e no Fator de Impacto (FI) da revista que realizou a retratação. TIPO DE ESTUDO E LOCAL: O estudo consistiu em revisão das notas de retratação no indexador Web of Knowledge (WoK) Thomson Reuters, na área "Medicina Interna e Geral". MÉTODOS: As retratações foram classificadas como: plágio e duplicação, erro, fraude e problemas de autoria e, em seguida, agregadas em duas categorias: "plágio e duplicação" e "outros". Os países de origem dos artigos foram dicotomizados pela mediana do indicador "citações por artigo" (CPP), e o FI foi dicotomizado por sua mediana para a área de pesquisa "medicina interna e geral", também obtida a partir do WoK. Essas variáveis foram analisadas em tabela de contingência de acordo com os grupos CPP (alto x baixo), FI (alto x baixo) e período (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014). Riscos relativos (RR) e intervalos de confiança de 95% (IC 95%) fo...

The visibility of scientific misconduct: A review of the literature on retracted journal articles

“…The USA ranks first as country most prone to retractions when absolute numbers are used ( Amos, 2014 ; Casadevall et al, 2014 ; Grieneisen and Zhang, 2012 ; He, 2013 ; Van Leeuwen and Luwel, 2014 ; Trikalinos et al, 2008 ; Zhang and Grieneisen, 2013 ) and emerging science nations when normalized numbers are used ( Grieneisen and Zhang, 2012 ; He, 2013 ; Van Leeuwen and Luwel, 2014 ). Stretton et al (2012) report that both lower-income countries and non-English speaking countries have a higher risk of retractions because of plagiarism than other countries, but this study does not compare overall retraction rates across countries (for a similar result see also Almeida et al, 2015 ). The general hypothesis that national contexts might influence both the incidence of scientific misconduct and its detection seems plausible.…”

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Plagiarism in the Context of Education and Evolving Detection Strategies

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