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Comprehensive Otolaryngology

Retracted Publications in Otolaryngology: What Mistakes Are Being Made?

Monday, October 2, 2023
1:57 PM - 2:03 PM East Coast USA Time
Location: 101AB

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Hannaan S. Choudhry, BA

    Medical Student
    Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
    Freehold, NJ, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • HC

    Hassan S. Choudhry, n/a

    Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, USA

  • Emily M. Kokush, BS

    Medical Student
    Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
    Secaucus, New Jersey, United States

  • Aman M. Patel, BS

    Medical Student
    Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
    Newark, New Jersey, USA

    • Senior Author(s)

  • Christina H. Fang, MD

    Assistant Professor
    Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center
    Bronx, NY, United States

Introduction: Retraction of publications can occur for a variety of reasons and is critical to maintain scientific integrity, yet there is a lack of research on its occurrence in Otolaryngology. Therefore, this study investigates characteristics, trends, and reasons for retraction of publications in otolaryngology journals.

Methods: A PubMed search for retracted publications from the top 60 journals with the subject “Otorhinolaryngology” as determined by Scopus’ CiteScore was performed. Publications were excluded if they were not in English, had missing information, or did not have available abstracts or full-text. Publication and retraction dates, journal, country of origin, citation counts, journal impact factor, topic, and reason for retraction were recorded. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to identify potential associations in the data.

Results: A total of 53 articles were included for analysis. The 2020s were the decade with the highest number of retractions per year (4.33), with articles being retracted on average, 35 months after initial publication. The most common retracted topic and country of origin were head and neck (22.6%) and China (17.0%), respectively. A majority of articles were retracted for either plagiarism or duplicate publication (52.8%). Mean citation count was 6.92 ± 8.32 and mean journal impact factor was 2.80 ± 1.35. Citation count was positively associated with journal impact factor (r = 0.425, p = 0.002) and months until retraction (r = 0.432, p = 0.001). There was no significant correlation between months to retraction and journal impact factor (r = 0.022, p = 0.878).

Conclusions: Retractions are becoming increasingly common in Otolaryngology. The most cited reasons for retraction were plagiarism and duplicate publication. An understanding of the reasons for retraction can better position journals and their reviewers to enforce more meticulous review standards and ultimately reduce such articles from being published.