The Phenomena of Retraction in Biomedical Literature

Abstract

These are the preliminary results of a study that examines the impact of retracted articles in biomedical literature. The study is a continuation of Budd JM, Sievert ME, Schultz TR, JAMA. 1998;280 (3):296-7, which focused on retractions in the biomedical literature from 1966 to 1997 and found that “retracted articles continue to be cited as valid work...after publication of the retraction.” Our objective was to study articles that have been retracted in the biomedical literature and to ascertain why and by whom the publications were retracted.