What time-lag for a retraction search on PubMed?

Evelyne Decullier,Laure Huot,Hervé Maisonneuve

doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-395

Evelyne Decullier, Laure Huot + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-7-395

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Abstract

BackgroundTo investigate fraud and errors, scientists have studied cohorts of retraction notices. These researches have been performed using a PubMed search on publication type “retraction of publication” which retrieves the notices of the retractions. We assessed the stability of the indexation of retraction notices over a 15-month period and what was the time-lag to get stability.FindingsA search on notices of retraction issued in 2008 was repeated every 3 months during 15 months from February 2011. The first search resulted in 237 notices of retraction. Throughout the study period, 14 discrepancies with the initial search were observed (6%). We found that the number of retraction notices became stable 35 months after the retraction.ConclusionsThe time-lag observed in this study has to be taken into account when performing a PubMed search.

Highlights

To investigate fraud and errors, scientists have studied cohorts of retraction notices
The time-lag observed in this study has to be taken into account when performing a PubMed search
The ability to find all retraction notices published in a given period is essential for these researches, and these studies rely on the fact that all retraction notices are identified as such in PubMed records

Summary

Introduction

To investigate fraud and errors, scientists have studied cohorts of retraction notices. Conclusions: The time-lag observed in this study has to be taken into account when performing a PubMed search. These researches have been performed using a PubMed search on publication type “retraction of publication” which retrieves the notices of the retractions. The ability to find all retraction notices published in a given period is essential for these researches, and these studies rely on the fact that all retraction notices are identified as such in PubMed records.

Results

Conclusion