title: Self-correction in biomedical publications and the scientific impact.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze mistakes and misconduct in multidisciplinary and specialized biomedical journals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted searches through PubMed to retrieve errata, duplicate, and retracted publications (as of January 30, 2014). To analyze publication activity and citation profiles of countries, multidisciplinary, and specialized biomedical journals, we referred to the latest data from the SCImago Journal and Country Rank database. Total number of indexed articles and values of the h-index of the fifty most productive countries and multidisciplinary journals were recorded and linked to the number of duplicate and retracted publications in PubMed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our analysis found 2597 correction items. A striking increase in the number of corrections appeared in 2013, which is mainly due to 871 (85.3%) corrections from PLOS One. The number of duplicate publications was 1086. Articles frequently published in duplicate were reviews (15.6%), original studies (12.6%), and case reports (7.6%), whereas top three retracted articles were original studies (10.1%), randomized trials (8.8%), and reviews (7%). A strong association existed between the total number of publications across countries and duplicate (rs=0.86, P<0.0001) and retracted items (rs=0.812, P<0.0001). A similar trend was found between country-based h-index values and duplicate and retracted publications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study suggests that the intensified self-correction in biomedicine is due to the attention of readers and authors, who spot errors in their hub of evidence-based information. Digitization and open access confound the staggering increase in correction notices and retractions.
authors.affiliation: Armen Yuri Gasparyan, Departments of Rheumatology and Research and Development, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Russells Hall Hospital, North Block, Clinical Research Unit, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 2HQ, United Kingdom, a.gasparyan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Armen Yuri
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Gasparyan
authors.forename: Lilit
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ayvazyan
authors.forename: Nurbek A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Akazhanov
authors.forename: George D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Kitas
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research; D015713:Duplicate Publications as Topic; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D039781:PubMed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012180:Retraction of Publication as Topic; D015871:Scientific Misconduct