2021 was – as is always the case – a busy year at Retraction Watch. How could it not be, with our database of retractions surpassing 30,000 – and then 32,000 – with ten percent happening this year alone?
2021: A review of the year’s 3,200 retractions – Retraction Watch | We are huge fans of Retraction Watch and the work they do. In addition to highlighting significant retractions, they share important thoughts for Research Integrity internationally. 3,200 might seem like a large number of retractions for a year. And it is. But in the context of the volume of research outputs, it isn’t a large proportion. Science isn’t broken, but it does need some work and we all need to focus on the culture of practice of research. Institutions and funding bodies need to focus on a lot more than just enforcement and penalties. The AHRECS team firmly believe in the constructive power of institutional processes that resource reflective practice.
Perhaps it was scrutiny of pandemic-related scientific claims, or recognition of paper mills and other industrialized fakery as a serious problem, or just gathering momentum as sleuths began to get their due in wider circles, but it did feel as though 2021 was a year in which retractions – and larger issues in scientific integrity – played a big role.
Despite some discussions of a plateau in recent years, the rate of retraction has nearly doubled since an analysis of our database by journalists at Science in 2018. We stop with 2018 in the below graph because retractions take, on average, nearly three years. The 2018 analysis stopped at 2015.