Retractions, press releases and newspaper coverage

Abstract

To explore how often newspapers cover the retraction of a medical journal article and whether newspaper coverage corresponds with the appearance of a press release about the retraction. Fifty citations were identified in PubMed that had been indexed with the Medical Subject Heading 'Retracted Publication'. Next, the archives of LexisNexis's 'Major Newspapers' and EurekAlert's press releases were searched to find references to those retracted publications. Newspaper articles addressed exactly three of the 50 retracted publications, and press releases, exactly four of the 50 retracted publications. All three retracted publications that received newspaper coverage also had a press release. In other words, newspapers only covered a retraction that had been introduced by a press release. One would expect that newspaper coverage would increase after a press release, but the suggested relationships among a medical journal article retraction, a press release and newspaper coverage should be further investigated. If the linkage suggested by the data of this study holds, and if newspaper coverage stimulates library patron interest, then a medical library might prepare itself for information requests following a press release.