What is a retracted paper?

A retraction is the formal withdrawal of a published paper by its journal, because of serious errors, unreliable data, plagiarism or misconduct. The paper usually stays online with a retraction notice. Citing a retracted paper as valid evidence is a real risk, since many retracted papers keep being cited for years.

Check a paper’s publisher page, Crossref metadata or the Retraction Watch database before relying on it.

A correction (erratum) fixes part of a paper; a retraction withdraws it.