##common.pageHeaderLogo.altText##
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57187/4685

Original article

Vol. 156 No. 4 (2026)

Retracted publications in medical journals: a cross-sectional, cross-disciplinary analysis

Cite this as:
Swiss Med Wkly. 2026;156:4685
Published
27.04.2026

Summary

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the number and proportion of retracted publications across 131 high-impact medical journals spanning nine clinical disciplines and to compare retraction rates and the proportion of misconduct-related retractions across journals and disciplines.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study analysed all retracted publications in 131 top-ranked journals (15 per discipline) in anaesthesiology, dermatology, general internal medicine, gynaecology/obstetrics, neurology, oncology, paediatrics, psychiatry and radiology. Journals were selected using the 2023 Journal Impact Factor from Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports. Retractions were identified in the Retraction Watch Database (RWD), PubMed and the Web of Science from journal inception to 15 December 2024. Retraction rates per 1000 publications were calculated using total publication output indexed in PubMed. The proportion of misconduct-related retractions was determined based on the RWD classification.

RESULTS: 878 retracted publications have been identified among 422,827 publications in total, corresponding to a retraction rate of 2.1 per 1000. Among the 811 retractions with available data on reasons, 542 (66.8%) were attributed to misconduct. Retraction rates and the proportion of misconduct-related retractions varied widely across disciplines. Anaesthesiology accounted for the highest retraction rate (7.0 per 1000) and the highest proportion of misconduct-related retractions (88.9%). All authors with ≥20 retracted articles were anaesthetists based in Japan or Germany.

CONCLUSION: Retractions and misconduct-related retractions are unevenly distributed across disciplines. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening editorial oversight and promoting research integrity.

References

  1. 1. Steen RG. Retractions in the scientific literature: do authors deliberately commit research fraud? J Med Ethics. 2011 Feb;37(2):113–7. 10.1136/jme.2010.038125
  2. 2. Wager E, Williams P. Why and how do journals retract articles? An analysis of Medline retractions 1988-2008. J Med Ethics. 2011 Sep;37(9):567–70. 10.1136/jme.2010.040964
  3. 3. Fanelli D. How many scientists fabricate and falsify research? A systematic review and meta-analysis of survey data. PLoS One. 2009 May;4(5):e5738. 10.1371/journal.pone.0005738
  4. 4. Marcus A, Oransky I. What studies of retractions tell us. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2014 Dec;15(2):151–4. 10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.855
  5. 5. Fanelli D. Why growing retractions are (mostly) a good sign. PLoS Med. 2013 Dec;10(12):e1001563. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001563
  6. 6. Van Noorden R. Science publishing: the trouble with retractions. Nature. 2011 Oct;478(7367):26–8. 10.1038/478026a
  7. 7. Koo M, Lin SC. Retracted articles in scientific literature: A bibliometric analysis from 2003 to 2022 using the Web of Science. Heliyon. 2024 Sep;10(20):e38620. 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38620
  8. 8. Fang FC, Steen RG, Casadevall A. Misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted scientific publications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012 Oct;109(42):17028–33. 10.1073/pnas.1212247109
  9. 9. Grieneisen ML, Zhang M. A comprehensive survey of retracted articles from the scholarly literature. PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e44118. 10.1371/journal.pone.0044118
  10. 10. Steen RG, Casadevall A, Fang FC. Why has the number of scientific retractions increased? PLoS One. 2013 Jul;8(7):e68397. 10.1371/journal.pone.0068397
  11. 11. Brainard J. Rethinking retractions. Science. 2018 Oct;362(6413):390–3. 10.1126/science.362.6413.390
  12. 12. Reith BM, Brand HS. Evaluation of retracted publications related to oral health: a scoping review. Br Dent J. 2025 Mar;•••: 10.1038/s41415-024-8233-7
  13. 13. Song F, Wu B, Wei G, Cheng S, Wei L, Xiong W, et al. A systematic analysis of temporal trends, characteristics, and citations of retracted stem cell publications. BMC Med. 2025 Feb;23(1):131. 10.1186/s12916-025-03965-8
  14. 14. Sebo P. Retractions in primary care journals (2000–2022). Scientometrics. 2023;128(12):6739–60. 10.1007/s11192-023-04850-y
  15. 15. Choudhry HS, Anur SM, Choudhry HS, Kokush EM, Patel AM, Fang CH. Retracted Publications in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery: What Mistakes Are Being Made? OTO Open. 2024 Jun;8(2):e157. 10.1002/oto2.157
  16. 16. Call CM, Michalakes PC, Lachance AD, Zink TM, McGrory BJ. A Systematic Review of Retracted Publications in Clinical Orthopaedic Research. J Arthroplasty. 2024 Dec;39(12):3107–13. 10.1016/j.arth.2024.05.085
  17. 17. Ferraro MC, Moore RA, de C Williams AC, Fisher E, Stewart G, Ferguson MC, et al. Characteristics of retracted publications related to pain research: a systematic review. Pain. 2023 Nov;164(11):2397–404. 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002947
  18. 18. Brown SJ, Bakker CJ, Theis-Mahon NR. Retracted publications in pharmacy systematic reviews. J Med Libr Assoc. 2022 Jan;110(1):47–55. 10.5195/jmla.2022.1280
  19. 19. Edalati S, Chung T, Govindaraj M, Kraft D, Lerner DK, Del Signore A, et al. Retractions in Otolaryngology Publications. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2025 May;151(5):458–65. 10.1001/jamaoto.2025.0018
  20. 20. Audisio K, Robinson NB, Soletti GJ, Cancelli G, Dimagli A, Spadaccio C, et al. A survey of retractions in the cardiovascular literature. Int J Cardiol. 2022 Feb;349:109–14. 10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.12.021
  21. 21. Levett JJ, Elkaim LM, Alotaibi NM, Weber MH, Dea N, Abd-El-Barr MM. Publication retraction in spine surgery: a systematic review. Eur Spine J. 2023 Nov;32(11):3704–12. 10.1007/s00586-023-07927-7
  22. 22. Kocyigit BF, Zhaksylyk A, Akyol A, Yessirkepov M. Characteristics of Retracted Publications From Kazakhstan: An Analysis Using the Retraction Watch Database. J Korean Med Sci. 2023 Nov;38(46):e390. 10.3346/jkms.2023.38.e390
  23. 23. Stavale R, Pupovac V, Ferreira GI, Guilhem DB. Research integrity guidelines in the academic environment: the context of Brazilian institutions with retracted publications in health and life sciences. Front Res Metr Anal. 2022 Oct;7:991836. 10.3389/frma.2022.991836
  24. 24. Kocyigit BF, Akyol A. Analysis of Retracted Publications in The Biomedical Literature from Turkey. J Korean Med Sci. 2022 May;37(18):e142. 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e142
  25. 25. Shi L, Zhang X, Ma X, Sun X, Li J, He S. Mapping retracted articles and exploring regional differences in China, 2012-2023. PLoS One. 2024 Dec;19(12):e0314622. 10.1371/journal.pone.0314622
  26. 26. Sebo P. Chinese authors are overrepresented in medical articles retracted for fake peer review or paper mill. Intern Emerg Med. 2024 Nov;19(8):2369–71. 10.1007/s11739-024-03616-5
  27. 27. Kocyigit BF, Akyol A, Zhaksylyk A, Seiil B, Yessirkepov M. Analysis of Retracted Publications in Medical Literature Due to Ethical Violations. J Korean Med Sci. 2023 Oct;38(40):e324. 10.3346/jkms.2023.38.e324
  28. 28. Pérez-Neri I, Pineda C, Sandoval H. Threats to scholarly research integrity arising from paper mills: a rapid scoping review. Clin Rheumatol. 2022 Jul;41(7):2241–8. 10.1007/s10067-022-06198-9
  29. 29. Sebo P, Sebo M. Geographical Disparities in Research Misconduct: Analyzing Retraction Patterns by Country. J Med Internet Res. 2025 Jan;27:e65775. 10.2196/65775
  30. 30. Candal-Pedreira C, Ross JS, Ruano-Ravina A, Egilman DS, Fernández E, Pérez-Ríos M. Retracted papers originating from paper mills: cross sectional study. BMJ. 2022 Nov;379:e071517. 10.1136/bmj-2022-071517
  31. 31. Sebo P, Schwarz J, Achtari M, Clair C. Women Are Underrepresented Among Authors of Retracted Publications: Retrospective Study of 134 Medical Journals. J Med Internet Res. 2023 Oct;25:e48529. 10.2196/48529
  32. 32. Decullier E, Maisonneuve H. Retraction according to gender: A descriptive study. Account Res. 2021;1–6. 10.1080/08989621.2021.1988576
  33. 33. Pinho-Gomes AC, Hockham C, Woodward M. Women’s representation as authors of retracted papers in the biomedical sciences. PLoS One. 2023 May;18(5):e0284403. 10.1371/journal.pone.0284403
  34. 34. Decullier E, Huot L, Samson G, Maisonneuve H. Visibility of retractions: a cross-sectional one-year study. BMC Res Notes. 2013 Jun;6(1):238. 10.1186/1756-0500-6-238
  35. 35. Schmidt M. An analysis of the validity of retraction annotation in pubmed and the web of science. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2018;69(2):318–28. 10.1002/asi.23913
  36. 36. Sebo P, Sebo M. Comparing the performance of Retraction Watch Database, PubMed, and Web of Science in identifying retracted publications in medicine. Account Res. 2025;33:2484555. 10.1080/08989621.2025.2484555
  37. 37. Sebo P. Gender disparities among authors of retracted publications in medical journals: A cross-sectional study. PLoS One. 2025 Nov;20(11):e0335059. 10.1371/journal.pone.0335059
  38. 38. Hart KL, Perlis RH. Trends in Proportion of Women as Authors of Medical Journal Articles, 2008-2018. JAMA Intern Med. 2019 Sep;179(9):1285–7. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.0907
  39. 39. Bakker C, Riegelman A. Retracted Publications in Mental Health Literature: Discovery across Bibliographic Platforms. J Libr Sch Commun. 2018;6(1): 10.7710/2162-3309.2199
  40. 40. Bakker CJ, Reardon EE, Brown SJ, Theis-Mahon N, Schroter S, Bouter L, et al. Identification of retracted publications and completeness of retraction notices in public health. J Clin Epidemiol. 2024 Sep;173:111427. 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111427
  41. 41. Suelzer EM, Deal J, Hanus K, Ruggeri BE, Witkowski E. Challenges in Identifying the Retracted Status of an Article. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Jun;4(6):e2115648. 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.15648
  42. 42. Schneider J, Lee J, Zheng H, Salami MO. Assessing the agreement in retraction indexing across 4 multidisciplinary sources: Crossref, Retraction Watch, Scopus, and Web of Science, International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators; 2023. https://doi.org/10.55835/6441e5cae04dbe5586d06a5f
  43. 43. Lievore C, Rubbo P, Dos Santos CB, Picinin CT, Pilatti LA. Research ethics: a profile of retractions from world class universities. Scientometrics. 2021;126(8):6871–89. 10.1007/s11192-021-03987-y
  44. 44. Ribeiro MD, Vasconcelos SM. Retractions covered by Retraction Watch in the 2013–2015 period: prevalence for the most productive countries. Scientometrics. 2018;114(2):719–34. 10.1007/s11192-017-2621-6
  45. 45. Fiore M, Alfieri A, Pace MC, Simeon V, Chiodini P, Leone S, et al. A scoping review of retracted publications in anesthesiology. Saudi J Anaesth. 2021;15(2):179–88. 10.4103/sja.sja_1110_20
  46. 46. Nair S, Yean C, Yoo J, Leff J, Delphin E, Adams DC. Reasons for article retraction in anesthesiology: a comprehensive analysis. Can J Anaesth. 2020 Jan;67(1):57–63. 10.1007/s12630-019-01508-3
  47. 47. Fraud in hundreds of articles n.d. https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/fraud-in-hundreds-of-articles/ (accessed April 12, 2025).
  48. 48. Kharasch ED. Scientific Integrity and Misconduct-Yet Again. Anesthesiology. 2021 Sep;135(3):377–9. 10.1097/ALN.0000000000003916
  49. 49. Bhaskar SB. Fraud in publications-retractions and deterrents. Indian J Anaesth. 2019 Jul;63(7):585–6. 10.4103/0019-5049.262622
  50. 50. Marcus A. A scientist’s fraudulent studies put patients at risk. Science. 2018 Oct;362(6413):394–394. 10.1126/science.362.6413.394-a
  51. 51. Carlisle JB. Data fabrication and other reasons for non-random sampling in 5087 randomised, controlled trials in anaesthetic and general medical journals. Anaesthesia. 2017 Aug;72(8):944–52. 10.1111/anae.13938
  52. 52. Hemmings HC Jr, Shafer SL. Further retractions of articles by Joachim Boldt. Br J Anaesth. 2020 Sep;125(3):409–11. 10.1016/j.bja.2020.02.024
  53. 53. McHugh UM, Yentis SM. An analysis of retractions of papers authored by Scott Reuben, Joachim Boldt and Yoshitaka Fujii. Anaesthesia. 2019 Jan;74(1):17–21. 10.1111/anae.14414
  54. 54. Fang FC, Casadevall A. Retracted science and the retraction index. Infect Immun. 2011 Oct;79(10):3855–9. 10.1128/IAI.05661-11

Most read articles by the same author(s)