Retracted genetics articles (N=1582). Reasons for retraction* and investigation, from 1970 to 2018
| Reasons for retraction | n (%) (95% CI) | Reasons for retraction† | n (%) (95% CI) |
| Fabrication/falsification‡ | 377 (23.8) (21.7 to 26.0) | Results not reproducible | 117 (7.4) (6.2 to 8.8) |
| Plagiarism§ | 148 (9.4) (8.0 to 10.9) | Contamination¶ | 27 (1.7) (1.1 to 2.5) |
| Duplication** | 384 (24.3) (22.2 to 26.5) | Conflicts of interest | 13 (0.8) (0.4 to 1.4) |
| Unreliable information†† | 196 (12.4) (10.8 to 14.1) | Fake peer review | 182 (11.5) (10.0 to 13.2) |
| Authorship issues‡‡ | 159 (10.1) (8.6 to 11.6) | Error by journal/publisher | 33 (20.9) (1.4 to 2.9) |
| Investigation§§ | 587 (37.1) (34.7 to 39.5) | Limited or no information | 90 (5.7) (4.6 to 6.9) |
The reasons for retraction and investigation of retracted articles as per the Retraction Watch database’s nomenclature.
*Description of all reasons for retraction are provided in online supplementary information−2.
†Reasons with <50 retracted articles in one or both groups (medical genetics, non-medical genetics).
‡Falsification/fabrication of data, images and results, and manipulation of results and images.
§Euphemism for plagiarism and plagiarism of article, data, images or text.
¶Contamination of cell lines/tissues, materials or reagents.
**Duplication of article, data, image and text and euphemism for duplication.
††Unreliable data, image or results.
‡‡Breach of policy by author, concerns/issues about authorship, forged authorship, lack of approval from author, and objections by author.
§§Investigation by company/institution, journal/publisher, US Office of Research Integrity or by third party.
N, number of retracted articles; n, number of retracted articles because of the specified reason.