'Super-retractors' account for a significant proportion of retracted clinical trials

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-04-16 01:00

Australia; International; VIC

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A small number of researchers are 'super-retractors' and account for a significant proportion of retracted clinical trials, according to international research, which the authors say may help to unravel fraudulent research papers at scale. The researchers looked at data on over 1,300 retracted trials gathered from the website 'Retraction Watch'. They found that six authors, dubbed 'super-retractors', coauthored one-fifth of all retracted trials, while 18 top-cited scientists with more than 10 retractions coauthored a quarter of them. A linked comment from Australian and international experts says the research exposes a notable feature that super-retractors act as superspreaders in perpetuating research misconduct.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research: Link to Paper 1 | Paper 2

Organisation/s: Monash University, University of Padova, Italy, Naval Medical University, China

Funder: Mr Lyu is funded by the China Scholarship Council (award 202410710001). Ms Matbouriahi is supported by the doctoral network MSCA-DN SHARE-CTD (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01, grant 101120360), funded by the European Union. Prof Naudet reported received funding from the French National Research Agency, the French Ministry of Health, and the French Ministry of Research and is a work package leader in the Open Science to Increase Reproducibility in Science (OSIRIS) project (grant 101094725) and for the doctoral network MSCA-DN SHARE-CTD (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01, grant 101120360), funded by the European Union. Prof Ioannidis is supported by an unrestricted gift from Sue and Bob O’Donnell to Stanford University. Dr Cristea is supported by a European Research Council Starting Grant DECOMPOSE (grant 101042701), funded by the European Union and by the doctoral network MSCA-DN SHARE-CTD (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01, grant 101120360), funded by the European Union

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