{
  "study": "Retracted-citation rate in recent biomedical papers",
  "publisher": "Manusights",
  "version": "2026-06-04",
  "datePublished": "2026-06-04",
  "url": "https://manusights.com/tools/reference-integrity/retracted-citation-study",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  },
  "method": "Crossref /works API sampling by ISSN (reference lists of >=10 resolvable DOIs); every cited DOI matched against the Retraction Watch database and Crossref update-to[] retraction notices. Severity precedence retracted > expression of concern > correction. Confidence intervals are Wilson 95%. Conservative lower bound (no hijacked-journal/DOAJ-withdrawn checks in this batch).",
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "The Retraction Watch Database",
      "identifier": "ISSN 2692-4579",
      "url": "https://retractionwatch.com/database/"
    },
    {
      "name": "Crossref",
      "url": "https://www.crossref.org"
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "sample_size": 12402,
    "journals": 54,
    "citations_checked": 744770,
    "unique_cited_dois": 435108,
    "thin_reference_papers_excluded": 4969,
    "any_flag": {
      "n": 875,
      "pct": "7.1",
      "lo": "6.6",
      "hi": "7.5"
    },
    "retracted_or_eoc": {
      "n": 170,
      "pct": "1.4",
      "lo": "1.2",
      "hi": "1.6",
      "oneIn": 73
    },
    "flag_breakdown": {
      "retracted": 162,
      "eoc": 25,
      "correction": 783
    }
  },
  "by_journal": [
    {
      "journal": "Nature Reviews Immunology",
      "papers_sampled": 42,
      "papers_with_flag": 9,
      "flag_rate_percent": 21.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Reviews Drug Discovery",
      "papers_sampled": 30,
      "papers_with_flag": 5,
      "flag_rate_percent": 16.7
    },
    {
      "journal": "Cancer Cell",
      "papers_sampled": 128,
      "papers_with_flag": 21,
      "flag_rate_percent": 16.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Cell",
      "papers_sampled": 305,
      "papers_with_flag": 47,
      "flag_rate_percent": 15.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Cell Reports",
      "papers_sampled": 306,
      "papers_with_flag": 45,
      "flag_rate_percent": 14.7
    },
    {
      "journal": "Cancer Research",
      "papers_sampled": 291,
      "papers_with_flag": 42,
      "flag_rate_percent": 14.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Experimental Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 158,
      "papers_with_flag": 20,
      "flag_rate_percent": 12.7
    },
    {
      "journal": "Diabetes",
      "papers_sampled": 182,
      "papers_with_flag": 23,
      "flag_rate_percent": 12.6
    },
    {
      "journal": "Immunity",
      "papers_sampled": 178,
      "papers_with_flag": 22,
      "flag_rate_percent": 12.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "American Journal of Human Genetics",
      "papers_sampled": 166,
      "papers_with_flag": 19,
      "flag_rate_percent": 11.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Immunology",
      "papers_sampled": 183,
      "papers_with_flag": 20,
      "flag_rate_percent": 10.9
    },
    {
      "journal": "Neuron",
      "papers_sampled": 232,
      "papers_with_flag": 25,
      "flag_rate_percent": 10.8
    },
    {
      "journal": "Molecular Cell",
      "papers_sampled": 274,
      "papers_with_flag": 27,
      "flag_rate_percent": 9.9
    },
    {
      "journal": "Developmental Cell",
      "papers_sampled": 205,
      "papers_with_flag": 20,
      "flag_rate_percent": 9.8
    },
    {
      "journal": "Science Translational Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 255,
      "papers_with_flag": 24,
      "flag_rate_percent": 9.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Biotechnology",
      "papers_sampled": 163,
      "papers_with_flag": 15,
      "flag_rate_percent": 9.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "eLife",
      "papers_sampled": 289,
      "papers_with_flag": 26,
      "flag_rate_percent": 9
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Genetics",
      "papers_sampled": 264,
      "papers_with_flag": 22,
      "flag_rate_percent": 8.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature",
      "papers_sampled": 294,
      "papers_with_flag": 24,
      "flag_rate_percent": 8.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications",
      "papers_sampled": 297,
      "papers_with_flag": 24,
      "flag_rate_percent": 8.1
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Immunology",
      "papers_sampled": 306,
      "papers_with_flag": 23,
      "flag_rate_percent": 7.5
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Cell Biology",
      "papers_sampled": 209,
      "papers_with_flag": 15,
      "flag_rate_percent": 7.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Communications",
      "papers_sampled": 303,
      "papers_with_flag": 21,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.9
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Biological Chemistry",
      "papers_sampled": 306,
      "papers_with_flag": 21,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.9
    },
    {
      "journal": "PLOS Genetics",
      "papers_sampled": 295,
      "papers_with_flag": 20,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.8
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Neuroscience",
      "papers_sampled": 208,
      "papers_with_flag": 14,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.7
    },
    {
      "journal": "PLOS Biology",
      "papers_sampled": 308,
      "papers_with_flag": 19,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Methods",
      "papers_sampled": 227,
      "papers_with_flag": 14,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences",
      "papers_sampled": 299,
      "papers_with_flag": 18,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nucleic Acids Research",
      "papers_sampled": 302,
      "papers_with_flag": 18,
      "flag_rate_percent": 6
    },
    {
      "journal": "BMC Bioinformatics",
      "papers_sampled": 270,
      "papers_with_flag": 16,
      "flag_rate_percent": 5.9
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Cell Biology",
      "papers_sampled": 172,
      "papers_with_flag": 10,
      "flag_rate_percent": 5.8
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Virology",
      "papers_sampled": 297,
      "papers_with_flag": 16,
      "flag_rate_percent": 5.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "BMJ",
      "papers_sampled": 148,
      "papers_with_flag": 7,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.7
    },
    {
      "journal": "Science Advances",
      "papers_sampled": 307,
      "papers_with_flag": 14,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.6
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of Bacteriology",
      "papers_sampled": 198,
      "papers_with_flag": 9,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.5
    },
    {
      "journal": "Gastroenterology",
      "papers_sampled": 179,
      "papers_with_flag": 8,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.5
    },
    {
      "journal": "Blood",
      "papers_sampled": 296,
      "papers_with_flag": 13,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Brain",
      "papers_sampled": 302,
      "papers_with_flag": 13,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "PLOS Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 140,
      "papers_with_flag": 6,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 306,
      "papers_with_flag": 13,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Science",
      "papers_sampled": 286,
      "papers_with_flag": 12,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "Molecular Biology and Evolution",
      "papers_sampled": 268,
      "papers_with_flag": 11,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.1
    },
    {
      "journal": "The Lancet",
      "papers_sampled": 244,
      "papers_with_flag": 10,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4.1
    },
    {
      "journal": "Circulation",
      "papers_sampled": 253,
      "papers_with_flag": 10,
      "flag_rate_percent": 4
    },
    {
      "journal": "Bioinformatics",
      "papers_sampled": 172,
      "papers_with_flag": 6,
      "flag_rate_percent": 3.5
    },
    {
      "journal": "The Journal of Neuroscience",
      "papers_sampled": 300,
      "papers_with_flag": 10,
      "flag_rate_percent": 3.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "PLOS ONE",
      "papers_sampled": 300,
      "papers_with_flag": 9,
      "flag_rate_percent": 3
    },
    {
      "journal": "JAMA",
      "papers_sampled": 180,
      "papers_with_flag": 5,
      "flag_rate_percent": 2.8
    },
    {
      "journal": "Annals of Internal Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 162,
      "papers_with_flag": 4,
      "flag_rate_percent": 2.5
    },
    {
      "journal": "New England Journal of Medicine",
      "papers_sampled": 298,
      "papers_with_flag": 7,
      "flag_rate_percent": 2.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "The Lancet Oncology",
      "papers_sampled": 158,
      "papers_with_flag": 2,
      "flag_rate_percent": 1.3
    },
    {
      "journal": "Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography",
      "papers_sampled": 83,
      "papers_with_flag": 1,
      "flag_rate_percent": 1.2
    },
    {
      "journal": "The Lancet Neurology",
      "papers_sampled": 78,
      "papers_with_flag": 0,
      "flag_rate_percent": 0
    }
  ],
  "examples": [
    {
      "journal": "Cancer Research",
      "citing_title": "Characterization of Drug-Tolerant Persister Cells in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Identifies a Shared Persistence Program across Treatments and Patients",
      "citing_doi": "10.1158/0008-5472.can-25-0995",
      "retracted_doi": "10.1002/jcp.29466"
    },
    {
      "journal": "Cancer Cell",
      "citing_title": "Comprehensive tumor-immune profiling reveals mediators of paradoxical immune sensitivity in sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma",
      "citing_doi": "10.1016/j.ccell.2025.07.010",
      "retracted_doi": "10.1038/s41586-023-05771-9"
    },
    {
      "journal": "Molecular Cell",
      "citing_title": "G3BP1 promotes intermolecular RNA-RNA interactions during RNA condensation",
      "citing_doi": "10.1016/j.molcel.2024.11.012",
      "retracted_doi": "10.1083/jcb.200212128"
    },
    {
      "journal": "Nature Methods",
      "citing_title": "MARBLE: interpretable representations of neural population dynamics using geometric deep learning",
      "citing_doi": "10.1038/s41592-024-02582-2",
      "retracted_doi": "10.1126/science.abh4340"
    },
    {
      "journal": "eLife",
      "citing_title": "Synaptic connectivity of sensorimotor circuits for vocal imitation in the songbird",
      "citing_doi": "10.7554/elife.104609.3",
      "retracted_doi": "10.1038/s41586-024-07207-4"
    }
  ]
}