This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier policy on article withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal).
This article has been retracted at the request of the editor.
The journals editorial team identified concerns of potential selective reporting and/or data manipulation given that only twenty-eight items from the articles survey appeared to be included in analysis. Coding indicated these items were a subset of the data, but no indication was given of how many items were in the original survey, or why and how many items had been removed prior to analysis.
When contacted, the corresponding author provided a dataset which did not appear to match the data and analysis reported in the publication. When asked to explain discrepancies between the dataset and reported variables and items in the publication, authors provided a second dataset and detailed which items from dropped from analysis, which also did not appear to match. The journals editorial team and Elseviers Research Integrity & Publication Ethics team confirmed that there were inconsistencies between variables and survey items reported in the article (Tables 2-7 and Figure 2), those present in the two shared datasets, and the authors response. Specifically:
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A)
The articles variable FEE items 1-8 were completely missing from the first provided dataset. When asked why variable FEE was missing from the dataset, the author provided the second dataset, which contained variable FEE listing items 1-9, and stated item 1 was dropped from the analysis.
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B)
The articles variable PG items initially appeared incomplete with only 4, 6-8, and 10-13 reported in the publication, but all eight items were missing from the first provided dataset. When asked why variable PG was missing from the dataset, the author provided the second dataset which contained variable PG listing items 1-13, but reported that PG items 1-5 were dropped from the analysis.
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C)
The articles variable EL listed items 1-12 in the dataset, but only items 2, 4, and 9-12 in the publication. When asked when and why six EL items were removed from the paper, the author stated that items 1, 3, 5-9, and 13 were dropped from the analysis. Adding to these inconsistencies, EL 13 was not present in either provided dataset, or in the publication.
Additionally, while variables FEE and PG were missing from the first submitted dataset, two different variables were present instead. Adding to the fact that additional values for EL were reported by authors that were not present in either dataset, this raises the possibility of more data points being collected for the study than initially reported in either dataset.
Given the discrepancies in responses received from the authors regarding which items were omitted from analysis, as well as the possibility of additional collected data omitted from any shared document, the editorial team no longer retains confidence in the validity of the results presented in this article.