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Science and engineering ethics
06, 2019;25 (3): 855-868.

Retracted Publications in the Biomedical Literature from Open Access Journals.

Tao Wang, Qin-Rui Xing, Hui Wang, Wei Chen
Author Information
  1. Tao Wang: Department of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit, Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya, 572013, Hainan, China.
  2. Qin-Rui Xing: Department of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit, Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya, 572013, Hainan, China.
  3. Hui Wang: Department of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit, Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya, 572013, Hainan, China.
  4. Wei Chen: Department of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit, Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya, 572013, Hainan, China. jijiuke415@163.com.
PMID: 29516389 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-018-0040-6

Abstract

The number of articles published in open access journals (OAJs) has increased dramatically in recent years. Simultaneously, the quality of publications in these journals has been called into question. Few studies have explored the retraction rate from OAJs. The purpose of the current study was to determine the reasons for retractions of articles from OAJs in biomedical research. The Medline database was searched through PubMed to identify retracted publications in OAJs. The journals were identified by the Directory of Open Access Journals. Data were extracted from each retracted article, including the time from publication to retraction, causes, journal impact factor, and country of origin. Trends in the characteristics related to retraction were determined. Data from 621 retracted studies were included in the analysis. The number and rate of retractions have increased since 2010. The most common reasons for retraction are errors (148), plagiarism (142), duplicate publication (101), fraud/suspected fraud (98) and invalid peer review (93). The number of retracted articles from OAJs has been steadily increasing. Misconduct was the primary reason for retraction. The majority of retracted articles were from journals with low impact factors and authored by researchers from China, India, Iran, and the USA.

Keywords

Duplicate publication Open access journals Plagiarism Retracted publications

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MeSH Term

Authorship
Duplicate Publications as Topic
Fraud
Open Access Publishing
Peer Review
Plagiarism
PubMed
Retraction of Publication as Topic
Scientific Experimental Error
Scientific Misconduct
Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Article has an altmetric score of 3

Word Cloud

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