Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation?
The speed in producing information and the rush to publish scientific articles on COVID-19 in several knowledge areas have resulted in what is known as an infodemic also in the scientific field, potentially producing inaccurate information and sources of misinformation at scholarly communication. T...
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doaj-5aceecaac0de488286ae92b0623a356d2021-05-21T21:48:15ZengPrograma de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação Ibict/UFRJLiinc em Revista1808-35362021-05-0117110.18617/liinc.v17i1.5593Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation?Karen Santos-d'Amorim0Rinaldo Ribeiro de Melo1Raimundo Nonato Macedo dos Santos2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação, Departamento de Ciência da Informação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, BrasilPrograma de Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação, Departamento de Ciência da Informação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, BrasilPrograma de Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação, Departamento de Ciência da Informação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil The speed in producing information and the rush to publish scientific articles on COVID-19 in several knowledge areas have resulted in what is known as an infodemic also in the scientific field, potentially producing inaccurate information and sources of misinformation at scholarly communication. This has led to some articles being retracted or withdrawn due to unintentional errors or deliberate misconduct, but they continue to be cited. This article (i) gives an overview of the COVID-19 retracted articles and preprints, and (ii) analyses a set of post-retraction citations in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic. We analyzed 56 retracted articles and preprints by using the list available in the section on “retracted coronavirus (COVID-19) papers” in the Retraction Watch (RW) webpage. We found that 64.3% of these retractions were articles published in journals, 33.9% were uploaded in preprints servers, and 1.8% conference papers. We also analyzed 162 eligible articles out of 612 records identified by using the Google Scholar search engine. This research found that an article from The Lancet continued to be cited even after being retracted. In this case, we identified 214 post-retraction citations, of which 38% were negative (n=81), 32% were neutral (n=69), and 30% were positive citations (n=64) http://revista.ibict.br/liinc/article/view/5593Retracted articlesRetracted preprintsCOVID-19MisinformationInfodemicPost-retraction citations |
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DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Karen Santos-d'Amorim Rinaldo Ribeiro de Melo Raimundo Nonato Macedo dos Santos |
spellingShingle |
Karen Santos-d'Amorim Rinaldo Ribeiro de Melo Raimundo Nonato Macedo dos Santos Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? Liinc em Revista Retracted articles Retracted preprints COVID-19 Misinformation Infodemic Post-retraction citations |
author_facet |
Karen Santos-d'Amorim Rinaldo Ribeiro de Melo Raimundo Nonato Macedo dos Santos |
author_sort |
Karen Santos-d'Amorim |
title |
Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? |
title_short |
Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? |
title_full |
Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? |
title_fullStr |
Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Retractions and post-retraction citations in the COVID-19 infodemic: is Academia spreading misinformation? |
title_sort |
retractions and post-retraction citations in the covid-19 infodemic: is academia spreading misinformation? |
publisher |
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação Ibict/UFRJ |
series |
Liinc em Revista |
issn |
1808-3536 |
publishDate |
2021-05-01 |
description |
The speed in producing information and the rush to publish scientific articles on COVID-19 in several knowledge areas have resulted in what is known as an infodemic also in the scientific field, potentially producing inaccurate information and sources of misinformation at scholarly communication. This has led to some articles being retracted or withdrawn due to unintentional errors or deliberate misconduct, but they continue to be cited. This article (i) gives an overview of the COVID-19 retracted articles and preprints, and (ii) analyses a set of post-retraction citations in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic. We analyzed 56 retracted articles and preprints by using the list available in the section on “retracted coronavirus (COVID-19) papers” in the Retraction Watch (RW) webpage. We found that 64.3% of these retractions were articles published in journals, 33.9% were uploaded in preprints servers, and 1.8% conference papers. We also analyzed 162 eligible articles out of 612 records identified by using the Google Scholar search engine. This research found that an article from The Lancet continued to be cited even after being retracted. In this case, we identified 214 post-retraction citations, of which 38% were negative (n=81), 32% were neutral (n=69), and 30% were positive citations (n=64)
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topic |
Retracted articles Retracted preprints COVID-19 Misinformation Infodemic Post-retraction citations |
url |
http://revista.ibict.br/liinc/article/view/5593 |
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