Skip to main content
PMC home page
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association logoLink to Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
. 1992 Oct;80(4):328–334.

The characteristics of medical retraction notices.

G L Snodgrass 1, M P Pfeifer 1
PMCID: PMC225694  PMID: 1422502

Abstract

During the past twenty years, more than ninety retraction notices have been published in biomedical journals. These retractions constitute a unique body of literature that biomedical researchers, bibliographers, and librarians must monitor to reduce scientific use of retracted, invalid papers. An analysis of medical retraction notices shows that very few are prominent in style, format, or placement, in spite of authoritative publication standards formulated by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors. Although researchers are ultimately responsible for the validity of the information they cite in their own publications, biomedical librarians are in a unique position to educate their patrons regarding retracted papers.

Full text

PDF
331

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Braunwald E., Kloner R. A. Special notice. Am J Physiol. 1983 Mar;244(3):H470–H470. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.1983.244.3.H470. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brawnwald E. Correction. Recovery from prolonged abnormalities of canine myocardium salvaged from ischemic necrosis by coronary reperfusion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Oct;79(20):6390–6390. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.20.6390. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cryer P. E. Retraction. Am J Physiol. 1989 Feb;256(2 Pt 1):E338–E338. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.1989.256.2.E338. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Danks D. M., Phelan P. D., Chapman C. Retraction: No evidence for more than one locus in cystic fibrosis . Am J Hum Genet. 1984 Nov;36(6):1401–1402. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dressler D., Potter H. Authors' statement: the existence and nature of "transfer factor/be/. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Jan;72(1):409–409. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.1.409-b. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dressler D., Potter H. Transfer factor: warning on uncertainty of results. Ann Intern Med. 1975 Feb;82(2):279–279. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-82-2-279_1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Felig P. Retraction. Direct evidence for downregulation of insulin receptors by physiologic hyperinsulinemia in man. Diabetes. 1980 Aug;29(8):672–672. doi: 10.2337/diab.29.8.672b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Freedman D. X. Request for retraction. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1988 Jul;45(7):685–686. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Goldenberg C. J. Retraction. Science. 1989 Jan 6;243(4887):12–12. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hahn B., Manzari V., Colombini S., Franchini G., Gallo R. C., Wong-Staal F. Common site of integration of HTLV in cells of three patients with mature T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma: a retraction. Nature. 1983 Sep 22;305(5932):340–340. doi: 10.1038/305340a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hamprecht B., Gullis R. J. Statement. Nature. 1977 Feb 24;265(5596):764–764. doi: 10.1038/265764b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kloner R. A. Withdrawal of 2 previously published reports. Am J Cardiol. 1982 Oct;50(4):929–929. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(82)91256-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kotzin S., Schuyler P. L. NLM's practices for handling errata and retractions. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1989 Oct;77(4):337–342. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Majerus P. W. Fraud in medical research. Presidential address delivered before the 74th annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Washington, DC, 8 May 1982. J Clin Invest. 1982 Jul;70(1):213–217. doi: 10.1172/JCI110597. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Monaco W. A. Ultrastructural evaluation of the retina in retinopathy of prematurity and correlations with vitamin E therapy: A retraction. Curr Eye Res. 1984 Jun;3(6):882–882. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Nutter D. O., Hopkins L. C., Jr, Heymsfield S. B. Retraction: Neurogenic skeletal myopathy in patients with primary cardiomyopathy. Circulation. 1984 Jan;69(1):202–202. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.69.1.202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Peters R. M., Friedman P. J. Retraction of publications. Crit Care Med. 1987 Mar;15(3):288–288. doi: 10.1097/00003246-198703000-00039. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Petersdorf R. G., Leopold G. R. Retraction of two articles: Myocardial infarct size. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1985 Dec;6(6):1440–1440. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(85)80239-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Pfeifer M. P., Snodgrass G. L. Medical school libraries' handling of articles that report invalid science. Acad Med. 1992 Feb;67(2):109–113. doi: 10.1097/00001888-199202000-00014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Pfeifer M. P., Snodgrass G. L. The continued use of retracted, invalid scientific literature. JAMA. 1990 Mar 9;263(10):1420–1423. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Pfueller S. L., Firkin B. G. Retraction. J Clin Invest. 1984 Apr;73(4):1243–1243. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Pribilla I., Krüger H., Buchner K., Otto H., Schiebler W., Tripier D., Hucho F. Retraction. Heat-resistant inhibitors of protein kinase C from bovine brain. Eur J Biochem. 1990 Feb 22;188(1):204–204. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1990.tb15390.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Questions on the validity of papers on mitral valve prolapse and on cardiomyopathy. Ann Intern Med. 1983 Aug;99(2):275–276. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-99-2-275. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Retraction of research findings. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Ann Intern Med. 1988 Feb;108(2):304–304. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Retraction of research findings. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. CMAJ. 1988 Apr 1;138(7):596–596. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Retraction of research findings. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Med J Aust. 1988 Feb 15;148(4):194–194. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Rowe C. E. Net activity of phospholipase A2 in brain and the lack of stimulation of the phospholipase A2-acylation stem. Biochem J. 1977 Apr 15;164(1):287–288. doi: 10.1042/bj1640287. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Scheife R. T. Oral clindamycin and ciprofloxacin therapy for diabetic foot infections: a retraction. Pharmacotherapy. 1990;10(4):261–261. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Shishido A. Retraction notice: Effect of platinum compounds on murine lymphocyte mitogenesis. Jpn J Med Sci Biol. 1980 Aug;33(4):235–237. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Shmookler Reis R. J., Lumpkin C. K., Jr, McGill J. R., Riabowol K. T., Goldstein S. Amplification of inter-Alu extrachromosomal DNA during cellular ageing: retraction and explanation. Nature. 1985 Jul 11;316(6024):167–167. doi: 10.1038/316167a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Slutsky R. A. Notice of retraction. Invest Radiol. 1986 Feb;21(2):97–97. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Soman V. R., Felig P. Insulin binding to monocytes and insulin sensitivity in anorexia nervosa. Am J Med. 1980 Aug;69(2):A17–A17. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Tseng E., Potter S., Picciano M. F. Dietary protein source and plasma lipid profiles of infants. Pediatrics. 1990 Oct;86(4):534–534. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Valenstein P. Author's retraction. J Clin Microbiol. 1989 May;27(5):1144–1144. doi: 10.1128/jcm.27.5.1144-.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the Medical Library Association are provided here courtesy of Medical Library Association

RESOURCES