China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct

Nature  February 12, 2024
A Nature analysis reveals that since 2021 there have been more than 17,000 retractions with Chinese co-authors. The [Chinese] government launched the nationwide self-review in response to Hindawi, a London-based subsidiary of the publisher Wiley, retracting many papers by Chinese authors. A Nature analysis shows that last year, Hindawi issued more than 9,600 retractions, of which the vast majority — about 8,200 — had a co-author in China. Nearly 14,000 retraction notices, of which some three-quarters involved a Chinese co-author, were issued by all publishers in 2023. According to Nature’s analysis, which includes only English-language journals, more than 17,000 retraction notices for papers published by Chinese co-authors have been issued since 1 January 2021, which is the start of the period of review specified in the notice. Researchers with retracted papers will have to explain whether the retraction was owing to misconduct, such as image manipulation, or an honest mistake, such as authors identifying errors in their own work. China’s National Health Commission posted the results of its investigations into a batch of retracted papers. Punishments included salary cuts, withdrawal of bonuses, demotions, and timed suspensions from applying for research grants and rewards… read more.