Postmortem of Retracted Scientific Publications from Türkiye

Abstract

Aim: These days the number of scientific publications is crucial in career advancements and respect in the scientific community. The researchers focus on increasing the number of publications per year, which sometimes compromises the quality of publications. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of retracted publications with contributions from Turkish authors. Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched with a combination of MeSH terms and free words relevant to “retracted publication/s” and “Turkey.” The inclusion criteria were (i) retracted publication and (ii) any authors of the study having affiliation with an institution in Turkey. Bibliographic information of selected publications was extracted. Results: A total of 147 publications were retrieved from three databases. The earliest retracted article was published in 1996, followed by an increasing trend of retracted publications. The study showed 106 (72.1%) articles have full-text Access. Overall 127 scientific journals have published these articles. Scientific Reports and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery were the top journals with four retracted publications. Hacettepe University, was the lead institute, contributing seven publications. The most common reasons for retractions were duplication 50 (34%) and most retracted notices were issued by editor 63 (42.9%). The majority of publications were from Medical Science 93 (63.3% paper) and the highest number, 44 were from surgery and allied. Turkish authors had international collaborations with 20 countries. Conclusion: The number of retracted publications is not high, the trend is increasing. To overcome this, research methodology and research ethics training are crucial.