Table. Characteristics of the Retracted Articles.
| Characteristic | No. (%) |
|---|---|
| No. of articles | 5209 |
| Article type | |
| Original article | 4364 (83.8) |
| Meta-analysis/review | 446 (8.6) |
| Case report | 254 (4.8) |
| Commentary/editorial/letter | 111 (2.1) |
| Guidelines | 14 (0.3) |
| Field of interest | |
| Clinical medicine | 1868 (35.9) |
| Basic science | 1333 (25.6) |
| Surgery | 839 (16.1) |
| Preclinical studies | 513 (9.8) |
| Health-associated disciplines | 329 (6.3) |
| Multiple fields | 324 (6.2) |
| Continent | |
| Asia | 2345 (45.0) |
| North America | 1041 (20.1) |
| Europe | 810 (15.6) |
| Africa | 113 (2.1) |
| South America | 65 (1.2) |
| Australia | 56 (1.1) |
| Multiple continents | 756 (14.5) |
| Country, No./No. (%)a | |
| China | 1025/1 301 086 (0.08) |
| US | 973/7 925 359 (0.01) |
| Japan | 495/1 518 911 (0.03) |
| India | 296/702 740 (0.04) |
| Germany | 210/1 252 891 (0.02) |
| Italy | 139/895 359 (0.02) |
| United Kingdom | 136/2 045 725 (0.01) |
| Canada | 61/1 006 743 (0.01) |
| Australia | 51/733 657 (0.01) |
| France | 41/835 361 (0.01) |
| Reason for retractionb | |
| Scientific misconduct | 3245 (62.2) |
| Duplication | 1225 (23.5) |
| Plagiarism | 724 (13.9) |
| Fabrication of data | 631 (12.1) |
| Issues about authorship | 378 (7.3) |
| Fake peer review | 313 (6.0) |
| Ethical violations | 232 (4.5) |
| Lack or withdrawn of informed consent | 85 (1.6) |
| Conflict of interest | 43 (0.8) |
| Unspecified misconduct | 781 (15.0) |
| Error(s) in the manuscript | 1949 (37.4) |
| Issues with the journal or publisher | 1010 (19.4) |
| Retractions for scientific misconduct by country, No./No. (%)c | |
| China | 699/1025 (68.2) |
| US | 474/973 (48.7) |
| Japan | 377/495 (76.1) |
| India | 229/296 (77.4) |
| Germany | 154/210 (73.3) |
| Italy | 98/139 (70.5) |
| United Kingdom | 58/136 (42.6) |
| Australia | 29/51 (56.9) |
| Canada | 27/61 (44.2) |
| France | 24/41 (58.5) |
| No. of journals with ≥1 retraction | 1828 |
| Impact factor of the journal of publication, median (IQR) | 3.17 (1.9-4.7) |
| Years from publication to retraction, median (IQR) | 1.8 (0.6-4.7) |
| Retractions due to scientific misconduct, mediand | 2.4 |
| Retractions for other reasons, median | 1.1 |
| No. of authors, median (IQR) | 5.0 (3.0-7.0) |
| No. of citations, median (IQR) | 9.0 (3.0-25.0) |
Abbreviation: IQR, interquartile range.
For country-level data, the numerator is the total number of retractions over the study period, and the denominator is the total number of publications over the study period. Percentages by countries were calculated for the 10 countries with the highest numbers of retractions. Retractions with authors from multiple countries were excluded from these calculations.
Only the top 3 reasons for retraction are reported; 3608 retracted articles had more than 1 reason for retraction.
The numerator is the total number of retractions owing to misconduct by country, and the denominator is the total number of retractions by country over the study period. Retractions with authors from multiple countries were excluded from these calculations.
The median time from publication to retraction is significantly higher for retractions owing to misconduct (P < .001).