Retractions: Analyzing the Role of Misconduct and Plagiarism in Chemistry Manuscripts

Abstract

Retractions and corrections serve as essential instruments for rectifying scientific work and safeguarding its honesty. Exploring reasons for manuscript retractions helps raise the awareness of existing mechanisms for correcting science and advancing science ethics policies. There is a consensus that clearly defined policies on scientific malpractice play a pivotal role in the detection of research fraud. The analysis of misconduct, revealed through retraction notices, serves as an educational tool for nurturing the next cohort of researchers in recognizing and disclosing unethical practices. This study offers an analysis of research papers that have been retracted from the scientific record over the past two decades, spanning 2001 to 2021. We examined a total of 1,292 retracted papers in the field of Chemistry, which were sourced from the Retraction Watch database. Our findings showed that 58.5% of Chemistry manuscripts were retracted due to misconduct; of them 40.5% of retractions were due to self-plagiarism and 36% - due to fraud. The median timeline for retraction of Chemistry papers is calculated to be 1.7 years, whereas the median duration of peer-review stands at 71 days. We will present a detailed analysis of retraction and peer-review timelines for each retraction reason, the distribution of retractions across various subdisciplines, and the relationships between journal impact factors and the number of retractions.