Retractions as a Bitter Pill Corrective Measure to Eliminate Flawed Science

Retractions of scientific papers are on the rise. Considered as a corrective measure, the rise in retraction rates reflects the flaws in the manuscript vetting processes and poor author ethics. The retraction process is not easy and often takes years to strip down the questionable work. Paper mills, plagiarism, image duplication, data falsification, authorship sale, and disputed authorship are some significant reasons to retract published papers. Often, retraction is initiated by the authors, called self-retractions, which depict research integrity, but the final decision is largely editorial. The scientific community stigmatizes retraction, which harms the careers of most researchers. In this chapter, we discuss the basics of retraction as a corrective action, reasons for retractions, consequences, measuring retractions, past cases of retractions, and highlight the destigmatizing retractions to foster a transparent publishing system, be honest scientists, and holistically serve the research fraternity.