title: Why and how do journals retract articles? An analysis of Medline retractions 1988-2008.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Journal editors are responsible for what they publish and therefore have a duty to correct the record if published work is found to be unreliable. One method for such correction is retraction of an article. Anecdotal evidence suggested a lack of consistency in journal policies and practices regarding retraction. In order to develop guidelines, we reviewed retractions in Medline to discover how and why articles were retracted.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrieved all available Medline retractions from 2005 to 2008 and a one-in-three random selection of those from 1988 to 2004. This yielded 312 retractions (from a total of 870). Details of the retraction including the reason for retraction were recorded by two investigators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medline retractions have increased sharply since 1980 and currently represent 0.02% of included articles. Retractions were issued by authors (63%), editors (21%), journals (6%), publishers (2%) and institutions (1%). Reasons for retraction included honest error or non-replicable findings (40%), research misconduct (28%), redundant publication (17%) and unstated/unclear (5%). Some of the stated reasons might have been addressed by corrections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Journals' retraction practices are not uniform. Some retractions fail to state the reason, and therefore fail to distinguish error from misconduct. We have used our findings to inform guidelines on retractions.
authors.affiliation: Sideview, Princes Risborough, UK. liz@sideview.demon.co.uk
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wager
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards; D035081:Editorial Policies; D032984:Ethics, Research; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards*; D012106:Research / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D012107:Research Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012180:Retraction of Publication as Topic; D015871:Scientific Misconduct / Q000706:statistics & numerical data