Bibliometric Examination of Retracted Articles and Journals in Which They Were Published

Objective: The most important mechanism applied to flawed studies to protect the integrity of science is the retraction of articles. The increase in the number of articles which have been retracted for various reasons is remarkable. Therefore, it is aimed to discover the parameters in these articles that harm scientific knowledge. Method: In the research, the first 100 journals with the highest number of retracted articles in Web of Science (WoS) were selected. Between 1978 and 2020, 1934 articles were retracted from the selected journals. This study sought to answer the questions: 1. In which years has the highest number of retracted articles been? 2. Which journal quartiles have the highest number of retracted articles? 3. What is the distribution of topics in retracted articles? 4. Which countries have more retracted articles? 5. What is the time difference between the year in which articles are published and retracted? Results: According to the review result, the rate of retracted articles has increased over the years. The articles were retracted one year after publication have a percentage of 19.5%. The number of retracted articles was in Q1-quartile journals is the highest. In the subject distribution of these retracted articles, "Oncology" (17.2%) and "Biochemistry and Molecular Biology" (16.9%) were prominent. The citation rate for retracted articles published in the journal Nature, Science and Journal of Biological Chemistry is 9%. The United States (USA), which ranked first in the country rankings of the retracted articles, receives the most citations with 54%. Originality: In the literature, it is found that there are limited number of Turkey originated publications about the topic. In this direction, existing state and changes of the retracted articles were examined. Conclusion: Retracted articles that violate science ethics have enabled all participants in the scientific communication system to be evaluated from different points of view. The results of these publications, which were examined within the framework of various variables, showed that more publications on the subject should be made and solutions should be developed.