Retractions of research papers by authors from the Arab region (1998-2018)

Abstract

Objective: To provide an overview of retractions of research papers contributed by authors from the Arab region. Method: Papers in which the first author was affiliated to an Arabian country were selected from the Retraction Watch database covering the period 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2018. The retrieved records were divided into nine categories based on the reasons for retraction. Results: The search yielded 322 retractions, and the most frequent reason for retraction was plagiarism (34.5%). The median time from publication to retraction was 14 (25%-75% percentile 5-30) months. The number of papers retracted each year as well as the number of papers published in a given year but subsequently retracted increased steadily over the 21 years. The proportion of retracted papers to the total number of published papers (0.17%) was higher than the global proportion and was the highest for Algeria (1%) and the lowest for Lebanon (0.03%). Of the countries within the Arab region, 12 out of 14 countries showed either plagiarism or duplication as the most common reason for retraction; however, the countries differed in terms of the number of retractions and the time from publishing to retraction. Conclusion: Plagiarism was the most common cause of retraction in the Arab countries. The increase in the number of papers retracted each year was probably because searches now extend farther in the past, whereas the increase in the number of papers published in a given year but subsequently retracted can be attributed to the overall increase in the number of papers published.

Academic Integrity: Author-Related and Journal-Related Issues

“…Retractions may occasionally take many months or even years to be made. At present, the average period from publication to retraction is about 24 months in the study by AlRyalat et al (AlRyalat et al, 2020) that is consistent with other studies (Moylan, & Kowalczuk, 2016). The longer periods may also be caused by analysing journals' deeper archives.…”

“…Other researchers outlined more reasons, including also author-related (i.e. false authorship or attributed authorship, guest and gift authorship, author disputes, manipulations with adding or excluding authors stated in the byline), data-related (both falsification and fabrication of data), results-related and investigation-related (erroneous methods or interpretation of results), review-related (fake or superficial peer review), and ethical grounds (AlRyalat et al, 2020). But plagiarism and duplicated publications are stated as the most frequent reason almost in every research on retractions in journals.…”

Analysis of retracted articles by Jordanian authors

“…Jordanian research output has been accompanied by a rise in research errors, sometimes leading to publications being retracted, 3 which is the subject of this study's exploration.…”

“…When transgressions and mistakes go unnoticed during the publishing process, journals can, in extreme cases, completely withdraw publications in an effort to clear the literature as much as possible of errors and inaccurate information. 3 In the last several decades, Arab nations have seen a tremendous amount of activity in the development of public and private colleges as well as public and specialized research institutions based on patterns common in Western nations. 4 This has significantly enhanced the contribution of Arab countries to research publications.…”