Retracted articles by Croatian authors: a case study

Abstract

Objective To calculate the number of scientific articles published but later retracted, to analyse the reasons for the retractions, and to compare the results with those from EU countries comparable to Croatia in terms of expenditure on R&D and the number of active researchers. ----- Methods We searched for retracted articles published between 1990 and 2017, with at least one Croatian author, indexed by the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) and identified those that had been retracted (as ascertained from the Retraction Watch database). The number of such articles was compared to the number similarly arrived at for three other EU countries. The retraction notices of the Croatian articles were scrutinized to determine the date and the reasons for retraction. ----- Results Of the 17 articles the retraction of which could be verified in the original source and/or from a retraction notice, four had been published in Croatian journals. The time from publication to retraction ranged from one month to nine years. Most such articles belonged to the field of biomedicine, and more than a half were retracted because of scientific misconduct (plagiarism and redundant or duplicate publication). ----- Conclusion The number of retracted articles by Croatian authors was relatively small compared to the total number of articles indexed in WoSS CC, and the proportion was not significantly different from that from comparable countries.