{"id":10432,"date":"2011-04-15T16:53:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T16:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/?p=10432"},"modified":"2011-04-15T16:53:31","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T16:53:31","slug":"retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several people sent me a link to this story from the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> reporting on a study<\/a> that finds that biomedical researchers continue to cite and rely on published articles even after the papers have been retracted.\u00a0 My initial reaction was what I presume it was supposed to be \u2013 \u201cGee, that\u2019s terrible.\u201d\u00a0 The conclusion that the article attributes to the study\u2019s author is that, at worst, some researchers cite articles they have not read, and that, at least, researchers are getting to papers through informal routes that bypass the \u201cofficial\u201d websites where retractions are generally noted.<\/p>\n

This article, however, prompted me to remember an earlier blog post and to explore a web site dedicated to publicizing retractions.\u00a0 The result is that I want to qualify the potential for a \u201cmoral panic\u201d based on this study in two ways.<\/p>\n

The first is to remind us all that the Internet is not to blame for the problem of bad science living on in spite of retractions.\u00a0 It is certainly true that the digital environment has lead to more copies of a work circulating, and those copies can be very persistent.\u00a0 But printed copies of erroneous studies were and remain much harder to change or stamp with a notice than digital ones are.\u00a0 In the \u201cold days,\u201d a retraction would be printed several issues after the original article, where many researchers would never see it.\u00a0 Indeed, it is hard to imagine that a study like the one reported by the Chronicle<\/em> could even be done in that environment; in most cases it was simply impossible to know (at least for the non-specialist) if an article was citing a prior work that had been discredited.\u00a0 Today more copies persist, but it is easier to disseminate news of a retraction.<\/p>\n

The blog post I remembered about this topic was by Phil Davis on the Scholarly Kitchen blog<\/a>.\u00a0 In spite of the post\u2019s unfortunate title, Davis does an excellent job of describing this problem without simply foisting the blame on the Internet and the increased availability it facilitates.\u00a0 He does suggest that the tendency to cite retracted articles is exacerbated by article repositories, and I would add that that we must balance whatever potential harm there is in these repositories with the great benefits to scientific research that are offered by improved access.\u00a0 More important, however, is Davis\u2019 discussion of a potential solution to the problem, a service called CrossMark which could help address the \u201cversion\u201d issue.<\/p>\n

The other blog site that I explored for some insight into the retraction problem is \u201cRetraction Watch<\/a>,\u201d which is mentioned in the Chronicle report.\u00a0 What was most interesting about this site, I thought, was its sophisticated awareness of the variety of reasons for retraction and its recognition that not all retractions indicate that an article\u2019s conclusions are unsound.<\/p>\n

When we hear that an article has been retracted, we immediately suspect, I think, that there has been fraud, fabrication or falsification.\u00a0 At the very least we suspect that the authors have discovered that their results cannot be verified or reproduced.\u00a0 Often this is true, but there are other reasons for retraction as well.<\/p>\n

One possible reason for retracting a paper is that it was sloppily presented, even if accurate.\u00a0 That seems to have happened in regard to a paper by Stanford scientists that was retracted<\/a> by the Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em>.\u00a0 The authors agreed to the retraction, apparently, because of \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in the documentation and interpretation of the data, but have subsequently verified the fundamental finding that the paper reported. \u00a0And some retractions are even less grounded in fundamental scientific errors; retractions have occurred because of political pressure (such as with the conflicting studies about the effect of gun ownership on crime), or even because some people thought an article was in bad taste (Retraction Watch reports here<\/a> on such a case).<\/p>\n

What I like about Retraction Watch is that it looks seriously at the different reasons for retractions and, when they are not clearly explained, as in this retraction<\/a> from the journal Cell<\/em>, tries to dig deeper to discover what the flaw actually was, or was perceived to be.\u00a0 This should be a model for our general reaction to retractions and the news that retracted articles continue to be cited.\u00a0 We should ask the \u201cwhy\u201d question over and over while remembering that scholarly communications is a complex system with many layers; simple answers and moral condemnation in advance of specific facts are almost never helpful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several people sent me a link to this story from the Chronicle of Higher Education reporting on a study that finds that biomedical researchers continue to cite and rely on published articles even after the papers have been retracted.\u00a0 My initial reaction was what I presume it was supposed to be \u2013 \u201cGee, that\u2019s terrible.\u201d\u00a0 … Continue reading Retractions and the risk of moral panic<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scholarly-publishing","category-technologies"],"yoast_head":"\nRetractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Retractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several people sent me a link to this story from the Chronicle of Higher Education reporting on a study that finds that biomedical researchers continue to cite and rely on published articles even after the papers have been retracted.\u00a0 My initial reaction was what I presume it was supposed to be \u2013 \u201cGee, that\u2019s terrible.\u201d\u00a0 … Continue reading Retractions and the risk of moral panic →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scholarly Communications @ Duke\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Smith, J.D.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@klsmith4906\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@klsmith4906\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Smith, J.D.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Smith, J.D.\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759\"},\"headline\":\"Retractions and the risk of moral panic\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\"},\"wordCount\":761,\"commentCount\":2,\"articleSection\":[\"Scholarly Publishing\",\"Technologies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\",\"name\":\"Retractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Retractions and the risk of moral panic\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/\",\"name\":\"Scholarly Communications @ Duke\",\"description\":\"Discussions about the changing world of scholarly communications and copyright\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759\",\"name\":\"Kevin Smith, J.D.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e621549dfd2ef4eccb0dfbe0c710482c7829676bf7bbe97134fd95e1d5ebd8e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e621549dfd2ef4eccb0dfbe0c710482c7829676bf7bbe97134fd95e1d5ebd8e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin Smith, J.D.\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/author\/ksmithl2duke-edu\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke","og_description":"Several people sent me a link to this story from the Chronicle of Higher Education reporting on a study that finds that biomedical researchers continue to cite and rely on published articles even after the papers have been retracted.\u00a0 My initial reaction was what I presume it was supposed to be \u2013 \u201cGee, that\u2019s terrible.\u201d\u00a0 … Continue reading Retractions and the risk of moral panic →","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/","og_site_name":"Scholarly Communications @ Duke","article_published_time":"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00","author":"Kevin Smith, J.D.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@klsmith4906","twitter_site":"@klsmith4906","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin Smith, J.D.","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin Smith, J.D.","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759"},"headline":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic","datePublished":"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/"},"wordCount":761,"commentCount":2,"articleSection":["Scholarly Publishing","Technologies"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/","name":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic - Scholarly Communications @ Duke","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-15T16:53:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/2011\/04\/15\/retractions-and-the-risk-of-moral-panic\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Retractions and the risk of moral panic"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/","name":"Scholarly Communications @ Duke","description":"Discussions about the changing world of scholarly communications and copyright","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/efc9b8deb1a1e82626f11fd55a3ea759","name":"Kevin Smith, J.D.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e621549dfd2ef4eccb0dfbe0c710482c7829676bf7bbe97134fd95e1d5ebd8e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e621549dfd2ef4eccb0dfbe0c710482c7829676bf7bbe97134fd95e1d5ebd8e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin Smith, J.D."},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/author\/ksmithl2duke-edu\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10432"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10443,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10432\/revisions\/10443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.duke.edu\/scholcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}