Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Tabl e 8. 10
The number of retractions found in major sources of scientific publications (As of
3/29/2012)
Sources
Items
Document type
Search criteria
PubMed
a
2,073
Retracted article
“Retracted publication” [pt]
2,187
Retraction notice
“Retraction of publication” [pt]
Web of Science
(1980-present)
1,775
Retracted article
Title contains “(Retracted article.)”
1,734
Retraction notice
Title contains “(Retraction of vol)”
Google scholar
219
Retracted article
Allintitle: “retracted article”
Elsevier Content
Syndication (CONSYN)
659
Retracted article
(full text)
Title: Retracted article
At the microscopic level, we will focus on questions concerned with post-
retraction citations to a retracted article. Are citations prior to retractions distin-
guishable from post-retraction citations, quantitatively and qualitatively?
PubMed is the largest publically available resource of the scientific literature
with the most extensive coverage of scientific publications in medicine and related
disciplines. Each PubMed record has an attribute called Publication Type [pt]. The
retraction of an article is officially announced in a retraction notice. The publication
type of the retraction notice is “Retraction of Publication.” The retracted article's
publication type is updated to “Retracted Publication.” PubMed provides a list of
special queries, including one for “retracted publication.”
1
The Web of Science, compiled by Thomson Reuters, has a field called Document
Type. The value of Document Type includes Article, Review, Correction, and a few
other types of value. The Document Type of Correction
2
is used for retractions
as well as corrections of other types such as additions and errata. The title of the
retraction notice consists of the title of the retracted article and a phrase “(Retraction
of)” so that the title is self-sufficient for identifying the retracted article. The title of
a retracted article in the Web of Science is also modified with a phrase to mark the
fact that it is retracted. For example, the Wakefield paper is shown with a phrase
“(Retracted article. See vol 375, pg 445, 2010).”
In Google Scholar, retracted articles are identified with a prefix of
“RETRACTED ARTICLE” to their title. In advanced Scholar search, one can
limit the search to all the records with the phrase in the title.
Tab le
8.10
summarizes the number of retractions found in major sources of
scientific publications as of 3/29/2012. The search on PubMed contains all the years
available, whereas the search on the Web of Science is limited by the coverage of
our institutional subscription (1980-present).
2
Correction
: Correction of errors found in articles that were previously published and which have
been made known after that article was published. Includes additions, errata, and retractions.
http://
Search WWH ::
Custom Search