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Does retraction after misconduct have an impact on citations? A pre-post study

Cristina Candal-Pedreira, View ORCID ProfileAlberto Ruano-Ravina, E Fernández, Jorge A. Ramos-Castaneda, I Campos-Varela, Mónica Pérez-Ríos
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246637
Cristina Candal-Pedreira
1Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
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Alberto Ruano-Ravina
1Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology & Public Health (CIBER en Epidemiología and Salud Pública/CIBERESP), Spain
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  • ORCID record for Alberto Ruano-Ravina
  • For correspondence: alberto.ruano@usc.es
E Fernández
3Tobacco Control Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, Institut Català d’Oncologia-ICO, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia
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Jorge A. Ramos-Castaneda
4Consortium for Biomedical Research in Respirarory Diseases (CIBER en Enfermedades Respiratorias, CIBERES), Madrid, Spain
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I Campos-Varela
5Grupo de Investigación Navarra Medicina, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Fundación Universitaria Navarra – UNINAVARRA, Colombia
6Liver Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Vall d’Hebron University Teaching Hospital, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain
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Mónica Pérez-Ríos
1Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology & Public Health (CIBER en Epidemiología and Salud Pública/CIBERESP), Spain
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ABSTRACT

Background Retracted articles continue to be cited after retraction, and this could have consequences for the scientific community and general population alike. This study was conducted to analyze the impact of retraction on citations received by retracted papers in two-time frames: during a post-retraction period equivalent to the time the article had been in print before retraction; and during the total post-retraction period.

Results The results indicated an increase in post-retraction citations when compared with citations received pre-retraction. There were some exceptions however: first, citations received by articles published in first-quartile journals decreased immediately after retraction (p<0.05), only to increase again after some time had elapsed; and second, post-retraction citations decreased significantly in the case of articles that had received many citations before their retraction (p<0.05).

Conclusions The results indicate that retraction of articles has no impact on citations in the long term, since the retracted articles continue to be cited, thus circumventing their retraction. More effective mechanisms should be established to prevent the citation of retracted articles in scientific papers.

Methods Quasi-experimental, pre-post evaluation study. A total of 304 retracted original articles and literature reviews indexed in Medline fulfilled the exclusion criteria. Articles were required to have been published in Pubmed from January 2013 through December 2016 and been retracted between January 2014 and December 2016. The main outcome was the number of citations received before and after retraction. Results were broken down by journal quartile according to impact factor and the most cited papers (pre-retraction) were specifically analyzed.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted August 11, 2020.
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Does retraction after misconduct have an impact on citations? A pre-post study
Cristina Candal-Pedreira, Alberto Ruano-Ravina, E Fernández, Jorge A. Ramos-Castaneda, I Campos-Varela, Mónica Pérez-Ríos
bioRxiv 2020.08.11.246637; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246637
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Does retraction after misconduct have an impact on citations? A pre-post study
Cristina Candal-Pedreira, Alberto Ruano-Ravina, E Fernández, Jorge A. Ramos-Castaneda, I Campos-Varela, Mónica Pérez-Ríos
bioRxiv 2020.08.11.246637; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246637

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