Title |
Analysis of Citations to Biomedical Articles Affected by Scientific Misconduct
|
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Published in |
Science and Engineering Ethics, July 2009
|
DOI | 10.1007/s11948-009-9151-4 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Anne Victoria Neale, Rhonda K. Dailey, Judith Abrams |
Abstract |
We describe the ongoing citations to biomedical articles affected by scientific misconduct, and characterize the papers that cite these affected articles. The citations to 102 articles named in official findings of scientific misconduct during the period of 1993 and 2001 were identified through the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science database. Using a stratified random sampling strategy, we performed a content analysis of 603 of the 5,393 citing papers to identify indications of awareness that the cited articles affected by scientific misconduct had validity issues, and to examine how the citing papers referred to the affected articles. Fewer than 5% of citing papers indicated any awareness that the cited article was retracted or named in a finding of misconduct. We also tested the hypothesis that affected articles would have fewer citations than a comparison sample; this was not supported. Most articles affected by misconduct were published in basic science journals, and we found little cause for concern that such articles may have affected clinical equipoise or clinical care. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 3 | 3% |
Brazil | 3 | 3% |
Germany | 1 | 1% |
Italy | 1 | 1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 1% |
France | 1 | 1% |
Mexico | 1 | 1% |
Canada | 1 | 1% |
Spain | 1 | 1% |
Other | 1 | 1% |
Unknown | 77 | 85% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Researcher | 15 | 16% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 14 | 15% |
Student > Master | 11 | 12% |
Librarian | 9 | 10% |
Other | 8 | 9% |
Other | 17 | 19% |
Unknown | 17 | 19% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Social Sciences | 17 | 19% |
Computer Science | 10 | 11% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 9 | 10% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 9 | 10% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 7 | 8% |
Other | 21 | 23% |
Unknown | 18 | 20% |