Exclusive: the papers that most heavily cite retracted studies

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02719-5

By Richard Van Noorden & Miryam Naddaf

The discovery that many academic papers heavily cite retracted studies is shaking up the scientific community. Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse, developed a tool called the “Feet of Clay Detector” to identify research that might be compromised due to its reliance on flawed references. His findings, shared with Nature, highlight cases like a recent IEEE paper where 60% of the cited studies were retracted. Cabanac’s work has flagged over 1,700 papers, raising questions about the integrity of published research and the effectiveness of current peer-review processes. As publishers begin to investigate these issues, the push for better scrutiny in academic citations is gaining momentum.