Department of Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
Curr Med Res Opin. 2010 Apr;26(4):843-7. doi: 10.1185/03007991003603804.
It has been proposed that the scientific literature purges itself of articles known to be fraudulent. To test this, an investigation was carried out of post-retraction citations over a 19-year period in the Breuning case.
On 10 March 2008 a cited reference search was conducted (all languages, all document types) using the name 'Breuning SE*'. The time limit was 1989-2007 with an option to exclude self-citations. The search included the ISI Web of Science Database including the Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citations Index and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. To ascertain the citation context, citations of Breuning were classified by two raters as affirmative, negative or neutral.
For the period 1989-2000 both negative and affirmative citations were found. For the period 2001-2006 only affirmative citations (even to retracted articles) were found, some in journals with higher impact factors than those citing the case as fraudulent. In spite of the small number of citations of Breuning's articles, it is alarming that the affirmative citing of fraudulent research has not completely ceased but continues 24 years post-retraction (retracted 1982, cited 2006). While the limitations of a single case study are conceded, the results challenge the belief of scientific literature purging itself of fraudulent material.
Retraction databases and widespread availability of computer software to check lists of references free of charge in any database or the internet are called for. Moreover, if a paper is never formally retracted, software for searching author names in the internet for fully investigated and proven scientific misconduct might be developed. The ethical guidelines on duplicate publication for purposes of disseminating the information as widely as possible should be reviewed.
有人提出，科学文献会清除已知存在欺诈行为的文章。为了验证这一点，我们对布吕宁案中撤稿后 19 年的引用情况进行了调查。
2008 年 3 月 10 日，我们用“Breuning SE*”的名字进行了一次参考文献检索（所有语言，所有文献类型）。时间限制为 1989 年至 2007 年，可选择排除自引。检索包括 ISI Web of Science 数据库，包括科学引文索引扩展版、社会科学引文索引和艺术与人文引文索引。为了确定引文的上下文，两位评估员将布吕宁的引文分为肯定、否定或中性。
在 1989 年至 2000 年期间，我们发现了肯定和否定的引文。在 2001 年至 2006 年期间，只发现了肯定的引文（即使是对撤稿文章的引用），有些引文来自影响因子高于将该案例作为欺诈案例的期刊。尽管布吕宁文章的引文数量很少，但令人震惊的是，对欺诈性研究的肯定引用并没有完全停止，而是在撤稿后 24 年仍在继续（1982 年撤稿，2006 年引用）。虽然承认这只是一个案例研究的局限性，但结果对科学文献清除欺诈性材料的信念提出了挑战。
需要建立撤稿数据库，并广泛提供免费在任何数据库或互联网上检查参考文献清单的计算机软件。此外，如果一篇论文从未被正式撤稿，也许可以开发一种用于在互联网上搜索作者姓名以查找经过充分调查和证实的科学不端行为的软件。应审查为尽可能广泛地传播信息而进行重复发表的道德准则。
