Posted on 02/15/2025 9:01:32 AM PST by george76
Retractions are driven by pressure to produce studies quickly, watchdog co-founder says
More than 500 studies on COVID-19 have been withdrawn due to “bias,” “unreliable” information, or unspecified reasons, a blog that tracks retracted documents, found.
Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky told The College Fix via phone interview one reason for the high number of retractions is the academic system’s incentive structure which pressures researchers to rapidly produce studies and get them peer reviewed as quickly as possible.
“Why do they feel the need to rush papers through? Well, it’s because that’s how they get or keep their jobs, that’s how they get grants, everything is based on that,” he said.
“When you know that your whole career depends on publishing papers in particular journals, you’re going to do what you have to do to publish those papers. Most of the time that means you work hard, you hire the smart grad students and postdocs,” he said.
Oransky also said researchers may feel “too desperate” or that “incentives are so stark” that there’s no “humanly possible way” to do it. “So you start engaging in misconduct,” he said.
The articles in the list pertain to risk factors related to COVID-19 vaccines and various alternative treatments for the disease.
“It’s really a range of everything from essays to big clinical trials,” he said.
Oransky pointed The Fix to one of his research letters examining the differences between retractions of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related research papers.
The results showed that papers on COVID-19 had a higher likelihood of being retracted or withdrawn within the first six months of publication and that they were more likely removed “without detailed explanation or for non-misconduct-related concerns.”
He said retracting papers is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can correct information that was potentially wrong or misleading. Ensuring clear and concise reasoning for retractions is crucial, he told The Fix.
...
“The problem is when papers aren’t retracted. The problem is when papers sit in the literature, people know there’s a problem, but everybody refuses to do anything about them,” Oransky said.
Further, many people use retractions to argue the government, drug companies, and others are untrustworthy. Generally, those people either “have an axe to grind” or are “just trying to sell the public something,” he said.
A retraction simply says the information “is unreliable.” “It doesn’t remove it from the world,” he said.
However, the transparency of the process varies. Some retraction notices provide no explanation, while others include detailed reasons for the retraction.
One of the retracted papers in the list, which question why children are being vaccinated against COVID-19, was withdrawn due to “unreliable” findings stemming from “inappropriate bias,” according to the retraction notice.
Another paper on COVID-19 vaccination risks was completely withdrawn without any explanation. Oransky told The Fix that full withdrawals are not considered best practice.
In other instances, retractions occurred because the author or editor sought further information they wanted to include or because of a technical error that occurred during the study that affected the results.
The College Fix reached out to the publisher of the COVID vaccination risk study, Elsevier, seeking an answer as to why the paper was removed without an explanation. The publisher said because the article was published in 2020, it wouldn’t be able to determine why it was withdrawn within a reasonable amount of time.
“Our goal is to prevent any cases that could potentially compromise the integrity of the scientific record and trust in research,” an Elsevier spokesperson told The Fix.
“The paper in question was retracted some years back and since then the journal has undergone editorial and review changes,” the spokesperson said.
How about not wanting their fraud to be exposed?
*** “Why do they feel the need to rush papers through? Well, it’s because that’s how they get or keep their jobs, that’s how they get grants, everything is based on that,” he said.***
This^
To survive academics must publish.
Anything, groundbreaking, good, sloppy, wrong or fraudulent. It doesn’t matter.
Just publish.
You either thought continuing on and obtaining the phd, publishing and teaching was the way to go.
OR, you realized it was the biggest bunch of nonsense that actually contributed very little to the real world and got out as soon as you could.
“Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky told The College Fix via phone interview one reason for the high number of retractions is the academic system’s incentive structure which pressures researchers to rapidly produce studies and get them peer reviewed as quickly as possible.”
Why do I think ALL those studies pointed in one direction?
Wake me when DOGE algorithms definitively connect federal funding to policy driven ‘science’ to support said policies...
...and are henceforth banned by legislation pursuant to law.
and #7
Trump/RFKjr affect
Science!
“Follow the money.”
“Wake me when DOGE algorithms definitively connect federal funding to policy driven ‘science’ to support said policies...”
What? Are you a science denier?
“””” and get them peer reviewed as quickly as possible.”””
“peer reviewed” which simply means it must follow the agenda.
“...pressure to produce studies quickly”
There’s no doubt some of that, but I’d wager that the real problem is the government, through USAID, CDC, and NIH told researchers “I want you to write a research paper supporting this conclusion” and they did. And the conclusions the government demanded were all nefarious, pro-government, pro-tyranny, anti-individual, and anti-freedom.
As the saying goes...
“I tried to follow the science, but it simply was not there. That is when I decided to follow the money. That’s where I found the science....”
If so, does the degree get voided?
So many papers were referenced on this Web Site by a few clot shot “Believers”.
Now we All sit with our gut feelings not knowing What is Ahead with long term affects and Symptoms, Physical and mental.
I hope the Best for All.
....retracting papers is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can correct information that was potentially wrong or misleading......
Right!
And “publish or perish” has gotten out of hand!
bookmark
Heh. But of course:
I’m a ‘science’ denier (aka ‘consensus’ or bought/paid-for).
;-)
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