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(Volume: 2, Issue: 2)
Paper Retraction- The Emerging Research Crisis?
Will it be fine, if the published article of a researcher gets removed from the scientific record of the publication? The name given to such an act is called as “Paper Retraction” and its figure has an enormous rise in current years. It might be disagreeable for the researchers to lose their published article because of paper retraction. However, a complete analysis on the true reason for why the paper retraction has been introduced, what has caused to the growth of paper retraction in recent years and what can be done to alleviate is most needed. Let’s have a glimpse at it.
Paper retraction- The true nature
Paper retraction is not merely removing a published article. It is the act of removing absurd methodology, fake findings or erroneous results, more plagiarized contents, the loss of research integrity and the non-adherence to the ethical guidelines of the publisher. Not only that, it is the process of removing a research contribution that direct or influence the young researchers of future in a misleading sense. However, paper retractions can be evoked by the author itself or by the publisher. Paper retractions by the author itself is not a serious offence, but the publisher-evoked paper retractions question the legitimacy of the author and his/her article.
The self-paper retraction
Self-paper retractions usually result, when the author himself finds honest errors in his/her article. Honest errors indicate that the methodology or the associated datasets are erroneous and needs complete investigation again to render useful research for the budding research community. Yet another type of honest error arises, when the co-authors mistakenly submit their article independently, without informing each other, and find the multiple submissions after publication. The self-retraction with a note on the reasons to the editor might end up in an investigation or not before retraction, in compliance with the trueness of the retraction reports.
The publisher-provoked paper retraction
These kinds of retractions will usually be the result of unethical means. The main reasons tempting the publisher to provoke retraction of an article will be the high -level of plagiarism contents, copyright infringements, failure to use or cite proper references, making multiple submissions to other journal publishers for getting quick publication, not making proper acknowledgements as well as conflict of interests prior to publication and the submission of online-generated unethical research articles.
Upon finding the article to be unethical, the journals falling under the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) start the investigation based on the COPE guidelines. On coming to know about the misconduct, the journal publisher will promptly publish the article title, along with the retraction reasons in its website. However, on failing to be certain about the misconduct, an expression of concern will be published on the journal website. The expression of concern reveals the investigation and its causes, as why the article has not been accepted after publication.
The retraction rise-causes
Paper retraction is experiencing a massive rise, approximately since 2010. The cause of this rise can be attributed to: (i) Researchers introducing an existing dataset introduced by yet another researcher as their own; (ii) Researchers synthesizing a dataset and posing it as a really-acquired dataset; (iii) Researchers claiming a published methodology as their own contribution; (iv) Researchers copying the contents of other published articles, resulting in a plagiarism percentage that falls beyond 15% or 20%; (v) The growth in online platforms generating fake articles and (vi) Researchers falsifying research in thirst of having more publications to excel in their career.
Avoiding paper retraction
Though self-paper retraction is quite admissible and publisher-provoked paper retraction is a public offence, there are ways that the researchers could adopt to evade them. The first and foremost is: (i) Rely on quality research, not on publication count; (ii) Maintain the research integrity, so as to build trustworthiness for the readers; (iii) Adhere to the publisher’s guidelines to the author; (iv) Document the research in one’s own perspective and (v) Verify the article, until one is satisfied with all the methodologies and results, prior to publication. The final most way of high significance is “Just don’t underestimate all the journals as predatory journals”.
Hence, The Research Seer’s Rationale on Paper Retraction is:
“Adhere to Publication Ethics to Avoid Paper Retraction”
“Adhere to Publication Ethics to Avoid Paper Retraction”
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