New publication, upcoming workshop highlight importance of reducing spread of retracted science

Jodi Schneider
Jodi Schneider, Associate Professor

When retracted papers are cited both before and after retraction, the scientific publication network inadvertently propagates potentially faked data, fundamental errors, and unreproducible results. Assistant Professor Jodi Schneider is working on reducing the spread of retracted science, receiving a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for this research.

A new publication by Schneider presents a case study of long-term post-retraction citation to falsified clinical trial data (Matsuyama et al., 2005). "Continued Post-Retraction Citation of a Fraudulent Clinical Trial Report, 11 Years After It Was Retracted for Falsifying Data" was recently published in a special issue on scholarly literature mining in Scientometrics. Coauthors include Di Ye (BS Statistics '19), and Alison M. Hill and Ashley S. Whitehorn, both medical researchers in Australia.

"The Matsuyama 2005 paper was retracted for falsifying data, so its conclusions are no more reliable than make-believe," she said. "The most shocking thing was that 96 percent of the post-retraction citations were positive—and used the retracted work as real science. This should never have happened. But even now, 12 years after the 2008 retraction, researchers are still citing the paper. We stopped our data collection in 2019, but even in 2020, people are still citing this paper."

According to Schneider, this diffusion of misinformation has the potential to harm patients, through promoting a nutritional treatment that has not yet been established through strong, concordant evidence and may be used as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy.

"It is also conceivable that, based on the publicity of the outcomes from the Matsuyama study, some individuals with COPD may perceive omega-3 supplements as a possible natural alternative to pharmacotherapy," she said.

As part of her Sloan Foundation grant, Schneider will be hosting an online workshop this fall, Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science (RISRS2020). The workshop will bring together diverse stakeholders in the academic publishing ecosystem to consider the problems created by the continued citation of retracted research and discuss possible solutions.

Schneider studies the science of science through the lens of arguments, evidence, and persuasion. She is developing linked data (ontologies, metadata, and Semantic Web) approaches to manage scientific evidence. She holds a PhD in informatics from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Prior to joining the iSchool in 2016, Schneider served as a postdoctoral scholar at the National Library of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, and INRIA, the national French Computer Science Research Institute.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Debnath datafies "The Bulletin"

MSIM student Tan Debnath, whose interests span data mining, statistical modeling, text mining, and digital humanities, joined the Center for Children's books as a research assistant. He was tasked with building curation processes that would datafy seventy-five years' worth of archival issues of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, one of the nation's leading children's book review journals.

Tan Debnath stands casually with his hands in his pockets and smiles broadly at the camera. It's a sunny day

He receives Amazon Research Award to improve monitoring of Earth’s ecosystem

A new project led by Professor Jingrui He aims to help scientists monitor disruptions to the Earth’s ecosystem, such as climate change. She recently received support for her work through an Amazon Research Award, which includes $60,000 in cash and an additional $40,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits.

Jingrui He

iSchool researchers to present at CHI 2025

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025), which will be held from April 26 to May 1 in Yokohama, Japan. 

Undergraduate Research Symposium features iSchool students and mentors

Several iSchool undergraduate students will participate in the 18th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. During the event, visitors will learn about undergraduate research projects through oral and poster presentations, creative performances, and art exhibits. All are welcome to attend the symposium, which will be held on April 24 from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Illini Rooms and South Lounge of the Illini Union. Oral presentations will be held on the second floor of the Illini Union.