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Collaboration and its influence on retraction based on retracted publications during 1978–2017

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  • Qin Zhang

    (Zhejiang University)

  • Juneman Abraham

    (Bina Nusantara University)

  • Hui-Zhen Fu

    (Zhejiang University)

Abstract

Scientific collaboration has considerably grown in recent years, and has been recognized as a positive factor for research productivity and quality. This study is aimed at exploring the collaboration in retracted publications and the influence on different kinds of scientific misbehaviors based on 4842 retracted publications in Web of Science Core Collection from 1978 to 2017. Search results showed that the proportion of international collaborations in retracted publications has fluctuated at around 20% in the past 17 years, and different collaboration patterns of major countries are revealed. The USA and China contributed to more than half of all retracted publications, while retraction rate of Chinese papers was three times higher compared to papers from the USA. A negative correlation between the proportion of internationally collaborative publications and the retraction rate was found. Countries involved in more international collaborations tend to have lower retraction rates. Also, the occurrences of plagiarism was found to be lower when a paper is contributed by more authors, while falsification or manipulation, errors or unreliable results appeared more frequently under the same condition. Conclusions are made with a focus on the need for more actions to strengthen the scientific norms and integrity within collaborative groups.

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  • Qin Zhang & Juneman Abraham & Hui-Zhen Fu, 2020. "Collaboration and its influence on retraction based on retracted publications during 1978–2017," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 213-232, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:125:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03636-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-020-03636-w
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    Cited by:

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    2. Liu, Junwan & Guo, Xiaofei & Xu, Shuo & Song, Yinglu & Ding, Kaiyue, 2023. "A new interpretation of scientific collaboration patterns from the perspective of symbiosis: An investigation for long-term collaboration in publications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    3. Ajab Khan & Ali Sina Önder & Sercan Özcan, 2023. "Does Performance-based Public Funding Pay off? UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Research Productivity," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2023-08, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    4. Qin Zhang & Hui-Zhen Fu, 2022. "Productivity patterns, collaboration and scientific careers of authors with retracted publications in clinical medicine," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1883-1901, April.
    5. Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, 2021. "The Matthew effect impacts science and academic publishing by preferentially amplifying citations, metrics and status," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5373-5377, June.
    6. Gonzalo Marco-Cuenca & José Antonio Salvador-Oliván & Rosario Arquero-Avilés, 2021. "Fraud in scientific publications in the European Union. An analysis through their retractions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5143-5164, June.
    7. Robin Haunschild & Lutz Bornmann, 2021. "Can tweets be used to detect problems early with scientific papers? A case study of three retracted COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5181-5199, June.
    8. Behzad Gholampour & Sajad Gholampour & Alireza Noruzi & Clément Arsenault & Thomas Haertlé & Ali Akbar Saboury, 2022. "Retracted articles in oncology in the last three decades: frequency, reasons, and themes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1841-1865, April.

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