Researchers studied the paper “In Vitro Modeling of Blood-Brain Barrier with Human iPSC-Derived Endothelial Cells, Pericytes, Neurons, and Astrocytes via Notch Signaling” published in the Stem Cell Reports journal by Yamamizu et al that was retracted due to concerns regarding the authenticity of certain images that seemed to be fabricated. They concluded that tweets are not indicative of research quality because the number of rate of tweets can change drastically due to retractions or research going viral due to reasons unrelated to its content. 

Allegation of scientific misconduct increases Twitter attention

This study looked at temporal characteristics of retracted articles such as the year of publication, the time after it was published before being retracted, citation counts after retraction, and social media attention. 

Temporal characteristics of retracted articles

- Researchers wanted to see if Altmetrics can act as warning signs for research that needs to be re-examined because prior studies only found weak or moderate correlations between alternative metrics and citations. They compared 209 papers retracted by PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science - an open access and peer-reviewed scientific journal, and 418 non-retracted papers also from PLoS ONE. 
- Research question: in comparison to non-retracted, contemporary publications, are the retracted articles more likely to be viewed and commented (also tweeted and blogged) before the retraction takes place? 
- Conclusion: deviations from average number of views, downloads, and reads could point to the potential retraction of certain papers 

Other than detecting impact in advance, alternative metrics could act as early warning signs of retractions: tentative findings of a study into the papers retracted by PLoS ONE

- "Other than detecting impact in advance, alternative metrics could act as early warning signs of retractions: tentative findings of a study into the papers retracted by PLoS ONE"
- "Allegation of scientific misconduct increases Twitter attention"
- "Temporal characteristics of retracted articles"

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

A published piece of scientific work can be rescinded, or retracted, when its data is called into question due to fabrication, falsification, or severe flaws in research design. This formal process alerts the scientific community to serious problems with the original study. A retraction can be initiated by the study's lead researcher, their research collaborators, their employing institution, or the editorial board of the publishing journal.

Retraction of Scientific Publications

Literature on the Retraction of Publications

Preprints, unlike traditionally peer-reviewed papers, do not need to undergo careful scrutiny and are thus able to be published and uploaded to servers much more efficiently. During the initial COVID-19 outbreak, many researchers uploaded their findings on preprint servers for others to study and reference, despite containing quite some false information. Since then, preprints have become a major source of the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19 due to countless new papers that have cited preprints that are now retracted, withdrawn, or have completely disappeared. 

Retraction of COVID-19-Related Preprints

To date, a list of papers on COVID-19 have been retracted and withdrawn for spreading misinformation regarding the coronavirus or for containing obviously flawed data collection and results. Scientists and researchers alike now question the lack of quality in these retracted papers and study how different factors have contributed to the unusually high rates of retraction on COVID-19-related papers. 

Retraction of COVID-19 Papers

A notable example of retracted research is the false claim that routine childhood vaccines cause autism. Although several peer-reviewed studies initially supported this link, large-scale epidemiological research demonstrated no connection and affirmed vaccine safety. The original studies were retracted after it was revealed that the lead researcher had a significant financial conflict of interest in establishing the link.

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