ArticleBMJ evidence-based medicine2024
Reducing the residue of retractions in evidence synthesis: ways to minimise inappropriate citation and use of retracted data.
Article in BMJ evidence-based medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic analysis of temporal trends, characteristics, and citations of retracted stem cell publications.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Retractions in the field of pregnancy and pain: bibliometric characteristics, reasons, and trends.Rheumatology international · 2026Article
- Shifts in Clinical Practice-Changing Acute Ischemic Stroke Research Over the Past Decade.Stroke (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Why retracted articles can have an influential afterlife-and what to do about it.Stem cells translational medicine · 2026Article
- Retractions in Psychology and Psychiatry in Web of Science : A Bioethical Perspective.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Review
- Retractions of publications on central nervous system tumors based on the Retraction Watch Database.Chinese neurosurgical journal · 2026Article
- Cost of Retracted Articles to the NIH: a Living Analysis.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Performance of AI Tools in Citing Retracted Literature : Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Shifts in Clinical Practice-Changing Acute Ischemic Stroke Research Over the Last Decade.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
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- Article
- Investigating the impact of trial retractions on the healthcare evidence ecosystem (VITALITY Study I): retrospective cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Association between physician burnout and patient safety: study protocol for an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Characteristics of retracted articles in ophthalmology.Heliyon · 2024Article
- An analysis of retracted COVID-19 articles published by one medical publisher with multiple journals.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2024Article
- Trust me: You can't trust everything that you read.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The incorporation of publications that have been retracted is a risk in reliable evidence synthesis. Retraction is an important mechanism for correcting the literature and protecting its integrity. Within the medical literature, the continued citation of retracted publications occurs for a variety of reasons. Recent evidence suggests that systematic reviews and meta-analyses often unwittingly cite retracted publications which, at least in some cases, may significantly impact quantitative effect estimates in meta-analyses. There is strong evidence that authors of systematic reviews and meta-analyses may be unaware of the retracted status of publications and treat them as if they are not retracted. These problems are difficult to address for several reasons: identifying retracted publications is important but logistically challenging; publications may be retracted while a review is in preparation or in press and problems with a publication may also be discovered after the evidence synthesis is published. We propose a set of concrete actions that stakeholders (eg, scientists, peer-reviewers, journal editors) might take in the near-term, and that research funders, citation management systems, and databases and search engines might take in the longer term to limit the impact of retracted primary studies on evidence syntheses.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.