In a study performed by the Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris which is a joint CNRS/Chimie ParisTech research institute in Paris, the papers in chemistry and materials sciences were investigated and the researchers gained significant insights from them.
What was the study?
- Using the Scopus database of Elsevier, the researchers investigated the number of papers published, the countries of their origin and all paper retractions.
- Most of the papers in these journals were published by China – 30.9%, followed by the US – 15.1%. Researchers from India have published only 7.3% of all papers in these journals.
- It was also found that a total of 331 papers were retracted in 2017 and 2018 in chemistry, materials science, and chemical engineering journals.
- Most of the papers were retracted were of Chinese origin – 31.4%. However, India papers were the second most retracted at 17.4%. The American papers that were retracted were just 14.2%.
- So, not only are Indian researchers publishing less work than their global peers but their work is also more retracted compared to the global standards.
- Effectively, for Indian papers, there is a 2.4-fold difference between retractions and papers published, which is one of the highest in the world.
- Only Iran, with a 4.1 fold difference (11.2% of all papers retracted while only 2.7% of all papers published) has a worse faring in all large nations.
Why were the papers retracted?
The Indian papers were retracted unanimously due to ethical shortcomings. These shortcomings range from plagiarism, research misconduct, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriately and extensively digitally manipulated.