Standing on the Shoulder of the Tumbling Giants: Empirical Analysis on Post-Retraction Citation

• In Event: Text-Based Machine Learning, Big Data, and the Social Study of Science - II

Abstract

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”. Evidences support that knowledge production is cumulative. Cumulation of knowledge can partly be captured by citations in publications. In Mertonian paradigm, such citations are instrumental and symbolic. Yet, what has been less known is how scientists often use illegitimate knowledge, i.e. citing retracted articles. For example, around 35% of citations from retracted articles are made after retractions. To explore such misguided citation behaviors, this paper analyzes how ignorance and competitive pressure can leads to misguided behaviors.
I use retracted articles and their forward citation data from the Web of Science and exploits variations between the citations received before retraction and after retractions to investigate how ignorance and competitive pressure can lead to post-retraction citation. The analysis is based on 92,095 articles that cited 3,612 retracted articles. The series of regression models indicate that author’s knowledge similarity to citing article decrease the likelihood of post-retraction citation, which indicate that scientist’s ignorance on foreign topics explain their misguided citation behaviors. The result also shows that increasing competitive environment, as measured by field intensity, lead authors to citing retracted articles.
The fact that that considerable citations happens after retraction is alarming. Part of these behaviors can be explained by scientists’ lack of knowledge on foreign fields and competitive pressures.

Author

• seokkyun woo, Georgia Tech