Kovacs Marton, Varga Marton A, Dianovics Dominik, Poldrack Russell A, Aczel Balazs
Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
Institute of Psychology, ELTE, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Dec 18;11(12):240844. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240844. eCollection 2024 Dec.
The retraction of an article is probably the most severe outcome of a scientific project. While great emphasis has been placed on articles retracted due to scientific misconduct, studies show many retractions are due to honest errors. Unfortunately, in most cases, retraction notices do not provide sufficient information to determine the specific types and causes of these errors. In our study, we explored the research data management (RDM) errors that led to retractions from the authors' perspectives. We collected responses from 97 researchers from a broad range of disciplines using a survey design. Our exploratory results suggest that just about any type of RDM error can lead to the retraction of a paper, and these errors can occur at any stage of the data management workflow. The most frequently occurring cause of an error was inattention. The retraction was an extremely stressful experience for the majority of our sample, and most surveyed researchers introduced changes to their data management workflow as a result. Based on our findings, we propose that researchers revise their data management workflows as a whole instead of focusing on certain aspects of the process, with particular emphasis on tasks vulnerable to human fallibility.
论文撤稿可能是科研项目最严重的结果。虽然人们高度关注因科研不端行为而撤稿的文章，但研究表明，许多撤稿是由于诚实的错误。不幸的是，在大多数情况下，撤稿通知并未提供足够信息来确定这些错误的具体类型和原因。在我们的研究中，我们从作者的角度探讨了导致撤稿的研究数据管理（RDM）错误。我们采用调查设计收集了来自广泛学科的97名研究人员的回复。我们的探索性结果表明，几乎任何类型的RDM错误都可能导致论文撤稿，并且这些错误可能发生在数据管理工作流程的任何阶段。最常见的错误原因是疏忽。撤稿对我们大多数样本来说是极其紧张的经历，并且大多数接受调查的研究人员因此对其数据管理工作流程进行了调整。基于我们的研究结果，我们建议研究人员对其数据管理工作流程进行全面修订，而不是只关注流程的某些方面，尤其要重视易受人为失误影响的任务。
