Table 1.
Summary of the characteristics of all the retracted articles in the study sample (n = 1,339)
| Characteristic | Number of retracted articles (%) |
|---|---|
| Publication characteristics | |
| Sex of senior or corresponding author | |
| Female | 184 (13.7) |
| Male | 889 (66.4) |
| Both | 16 (1.2) |
| Unclear | 250 (18.7) |
| Source of funding | |
| Not mentioned | 676 (50.5) |
| Mentioned | 408 (30.5) |
| Public | 197 (48.3) |
| Private | 71 (17.4) |
| Public and private | 71 (17.4) |
| No funding received | 69 (16.9) |
| Unknown due to unavailable or inaccessible article text | 255 (19.0) |
| Conflict of interest | |
| Not mentioned | 813 (60.7) |
| Mentioned | 340 (25.4) |
| No conflict of interest declared | 306 (90.0) |
| Conflict of interest declared | 34 (10.0) |
| Unknown | 186 (13.9) |
| Retraction characteristics | |
| Reason for retraction | |
| Misconduct | 685 (51.2) |
| Error | 193 (14.4) |
| Duplicate publication | 169 (12.6) |
| Irreproducible results | 13 (1.0) |
| Author disagreement | 18 (1.3) |
| Unknown | 261 (19.5) |
| Party calling for retractiona | |
| Journal editor(s) | 794 (59.3) |
| Author(s) | 380 (28.4) |
| Publisher | 212 (15.8) |
| Author’s institution | 81 (6.0) |
| Investigating committee | 61 (4.6) |
| Funding agency | 1 (0.1) |
| Retraction policies | |
| Publications in journals with retraction policies | 1,141 (85.2) |
| Publications in journals with no retraction policies | 178 (13.3) |
| Unclearb | 20 (1.5) |
| Journal practices toward retracted articles | |
| Article completely withdrawn | 181 (13.5) |
| Article still available | 1,158 (86.5) |
| Watermark | 599 (51.7) |
| Note | 91 (7.9) |
| Watermark and note | 63 (5.4) |
| Inaccessible article text | 10 (0.9) |
| No indications of retraction | 395 (34.1) |
| Retraction Watch reporting | |
| Articles retracted before August 2010 | 446 (33.3) |
| Articles retracted after August 2010 | 893 (66.7) |
| Retracted articles not reported on Retraction Watch | 326 (36.6) |
| Retracted articles reported on Retraction Watch | 567 (63.4) |
Notes:
a
Percentages were not mutually exclusive since an article could be retracted by more than one of the listed parties.
b
A retraction policy was unknown due to the journal being discontinued or the journal website being in languages other than English.