Why has the number of scientific retractions increased?

Abstract

Background:The number of retracted scientific publications has risen sharply, but it is unclear whether this reflects an increase in publication of flawed articles or an increase in the rate at which flawed articles are withdrawn. Methods and Findings:We examined the interval between publication and retraction for 2,047 retracted articles indexed in PubMed.Time-to-retraction (from publication of article to publication of retraction) averaged 32.91 months.Among 714 retracted articles published in or before 2002, retraction required 49.82 months; among 1,333 retracted articles published after 2002, retraction required 23.82 months (p,0.0001).This suggests that journals are retracting papers more quickly than in the past, although recent articles requiring retraction may not have been recognized yet.To test the hypothesis that time-to-retraction is shorter for articles that receive careful scrutiny, time-to-retraction was correlated with journal impact factor (IF). Time-to-retraction was significantly shorter for high-IF journals, but only ,1% of the variance in time-toretraction was explained by increased scrutiny.The first

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