Communication

The Silver Lining in Bulk Retractions Communication
(Image: Bruce Boyes /Pixabay)

The Silver Lining in Bulk Retractions

November 20, 2023 1700

This is the opening from a longer post by Adya Misra, the research integrity and inclusion manager at Social Science Space’s parent, Sage. The full post, which addresses the hows and the whys of bulk retractions in Sage’s academic journals, appears at Retraction Watch.

Headshot of Ayda Misra
Adya Misra

When I began my graduate work almost 15 years ago, retractions of papers in academic journals were rare, reserved mainly for clear misconduct or serious errors. Today, rarity has given way to routine, with retractions coming more often and increasingly in bulk. 

Sage is not immune to large-scale retractions, nor are we passive observers of their growth. As Retraction Watch wrote, we were “one of the first publishers to recognize large-scale peer review manipulation and begin retracting papers in bulk nine years ago.” Recently, we issued some major retractions; just in the last few months, we put out 37 from Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and 21 from Concurrent Engineering. And there are more to come. 

While we don’t celebrate this type of action, the news is not all bad. The high numbers of retractions at times reflect a problem of industrialized cheating, but also, as in our case, a belief that rigorous scholarship – robustly reviewed by researchers who are experts in their fields – can and should improve the world. Sage was founded on this principle, and it guides everything we do. 

We take our role of vigorously correcting the academic record very seriously because we believe in the scholarly process. We also know that every part of the process is managed by humans with biases (conscious or unconscious), agendas, heavy workloads, and – at times – dubious incentives.  

As research integrity manager at Sage, I work to safeguard the credibility of the research published in more than 60,000 articles every year across more than 1,100 journals. In my role, I see a lot of unethical practices: peer review rings, where researchers unfairly influence the review process; paper mills that produce mass-fabricated research papers, and the brazen trend of selling authorship or entire papers on private or public forums. When it comes to preventing and correcting this type of action,  much goes on behind the scenes.

Read the rest at Retraction Watch

Related Articles

Examining How Open Research Affects Vulnerable Participants
Impact
July 8, 2025

Examining How Open Research Affects Vulnerable Participants

Read Now
When Clarity Isn’t Enough: Rethinking AI’s Role in Cognitive Accessibility for Expert Domains
Industry
June 30, 2025

When Clarity Isn’t Enough: Rethinking AI’s Role in Cognitive Accessibility for Expert Domains

Read Now
The Ripple Effect of Book Bans on the Academy
Ethics
June 10, 2025

The Ripple Effect of Book Bans on the Academy

Read Now
Book Bans and Censorship Are a Threat to Our Universities. Librarians Can Help
Ethics
June 3, 2025

Book Bans and Censorship Are a Threat to Our Universities. Librarians Can Help

Read Now
Advocating For and Supporting Academic Freedom

Advocating For and Supporting Academic Freedom

Libraries are considered safe places, secure places to read and meet diverse (but sometimes like-minded) people who celebrate literacy by expanding different […]

Read Now
Academic Freedom and Censorship: Why Librarians are Better Together

Academic Freedom and Censorship: Why Librarians are Better Together

In 2023, the American Library Association documented 1,247 censorship cases with known locations. Of these cases, 2 percent occurred in academic libraries, […]

Read Now
The Chilling Impact of Censorship in Higher Education

The Chilling Impact of Censorship in Higher Education

Perhaps because college students are generally considered adults, and college and university campuses and classrooms have long been viewed as places to […]

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments