Research misconduct in hospitals is spreading: A bibliometric analysis of retracted papers from Chinese university-affiliated hospitals
und | 22. Sept. 2023
Article Category: Research Paper
Online veröffentlicht: 22. Sept. 2023
Seitenbereich: 84 - 101
Eingereicht: 05. Mai 2023
Akzeptiert: 06. Sept. 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2023-0022
Schlüsselwörter
© 2023 Zi-han Yuan et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Purpose
The number of retracted papers from Chinese university-affiliated hospitals is increasing, which has raised much concern. The aim of this study is to analyze the retracted papers from university-affiliated hospitals in mainland China from 2000 to 2021.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for 1,031 retracted papers were identified from the Web of Science Core collection database. The information of the hospitals involved was obtained from their official websites. We analyzed the chronological changes, journal distribution, discipline distribution and retraction reasons for the retracted papers. The grade and geographic locations of the hospitals involved were explored as well.
Findings
We found a rapid increase in the number of retracted papers, while the retraction time interval is decreasing. The main reasons for retraction are plagiarism/self-plagiarism (n=255), invalid data/images/conclusions (n=212), fake peer review (n=175) and honesty error(n=163). The disciplines are mainly distributed in oncology (n=320), pharmacology & pharmacy (n=198) and research & experimental medicine (n=166). About 43.8% of the retracted papers were from hospitals affiliated with prestigious universities.
Research limitations
This study fails to differentiate between retractions due to honest error and retractions due to research misconduct. We believe that there is a fundamental difference between honest error retractions and misconduct retractions. Another limitation is that authors of the retracted papers have not been analyzed in this study.
Practical implications
This study provides a reference for addressing research misconduct in Chinese university-affiliated hospitals. It is our recommendation that universities and hospitals should educate all their staff about the basic norms of research integrity, punish authors of scientific misconduct retracted papers, and reform the unreasonable evaluation system.
Originality/value
Based on the analysis of retracted papers, this study further analyzes the characteristics of institutions of retracted papers, which may deepen the research on retracted papers and provide a new perspective to understand the retraction phenomenon.