An Analysis of the Retraction Trend of Scientific Documents Indexed on the Web of Science during the Years 2000-2020

Retraction of articles is a mechanism used to remove inaccurate and incomplete articles and to correct scientific background. The aim of the present study was to provide a comprehensive analysis of the retraction trend of publications from 10 countries with the highest prevalence on the web of science during 2000-2020.

In this applied descriptive study, data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) and "Retraction Watch" databases using the scientometric method. From all countries with retracted publications (RP), 10 countries were selected as a purposive sample and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings showed that 90% of all RP indexed in the WoS during 2000-2020 occurred in 10 countries: China, United States, Japan, India, Iran, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and France. Moreover, it was found that in addition to the upward trend, the slope of RP has increased in recent years. The results also indicated that China, USA, and Japan had the highest number of RP with 42.8, 26.8, and 8.1%. Among the universities, Islamic Azad University was in the first rank with 138 (2.4%) retracted publications. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient revealed that there was a weak and positive correlation between rank in the frequency of scientific outputs and rank in the number of retracted documents.

Familiarity and attention to the reasons for the retraction of publications can prevent the rapid growth of these documents in the future. The ascending trend in the retraction of publications in the 10 countries is worrying, requiring the serious attention of scientific authors and policymakers.