Retracted genetics articles (N:1582). Reasons for retraction* and investigation, in 1970−2018
| Reasons for retraction | N (%) (95% CI) | Reasons for retraction† | N (%) (95% CI) |
| Fabrication / falsificationa | 377 (23.8) (21.7 to 26.0) | Results not reproducible | 117 (7.4) (6.2 to 8.8) |
| Plagiarismb | 148 (9.4) (8.0 to 10.9) | Contaminationg | 27 (1.7) (1.1 to 2.5) |
| Duplicationc | 384 (24.3) (22.2 to 26.5) | Conflicts of interest | 13 (0.8) (0.4 to 1.4) |
| Unreliable informationd | 170 (10.7) (9.2 to 12.3) | Fake peer review | 182 (11.5) (10.0 to 13.2) |
| Authorship issuese | 169 (10.7) (9.2 to 12.3) | Error by journal/publisher | 33 (20.9) (1.4 to 2.9) |
| Investigationf | 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: (a) Falsification/fabrication of data, images and of results, and manipulation of results and of images; (b) Euphemism for plagiarism and plagiarism of article, data, images or text; (c) Duplication of article, data, image and of text and euphemism for duplication; (d) Unreliable data, image or results; (e) Breach of policy by author, concerns/Issues about authorship, forged authorship, lack of approval from author, breach of policy by author and objections by author; (f) Investigation by company/institution, journal/publisher, US Office of Research Integrity or by third party; (g) Of cell lines/tissues, materials or reagents.
*Description of all reasons for retraction are provided in online supplementary information-2.
†Reasons with less than 50 retracted articles in one or both groups (medical genetics, non−medical genetics)
n, number of retracted articles because of the specified reason; N, number of retracted articles.