Dear All
I found an article published in Science. Although the article exists, there is an editorial retraction statement specifying the following reasons for the retraction:-
(i) lack of ethical approval for the experiments; (ii) absence of original data for the experiments reported in the paper; (iii) widespread lack of clarity concerning how the experiments were conducted.
However, there are sections of the article which are still useful.
Can I still use it as a reference?
Samwel
Avoid it completely. The main aspects of the article is already being questioned in terms of the rigor in the scientific process. It will not be right in anyway to use it no matter how enticing its contents are in your project. There are various credible resources available you can use. Best regards
Dear Samuel Limbu,
Please avoid citing a retracted article. The items you mention actually qualifies it to be fraudulent! So if you cite it, and I am sure the reviewers will pick it up, if it skips the editor, your work may be rejected and your integrity questioned. Had it been that you cited it before retraction, then you would be in a safe zone. Now that you see it has been retracted, citing it would be legitimizing it. Be careful
Try to not to use retracted materials.
As you can see the comments from the editors, the article is not ethically cleared/ready to be used for scientific reference. As a result, it is better not to use the retracted document as a reference.
Dear Ismael Kimirei and Beemnet Mengesha Kassahun
I appreciate your answers.
Samwel
I agree with the opinion expressed by Dr Farid O Farid.
Retracted articles should never be cited. If a paper has been retracted by authors themselves, there has to be some problem with the experiment, accuracy of the results or some other errors which came to the notice of the authors after publishing. In second case, if the paper has been retracted due to issues of plagiarism, fraud, copyright theft etc., it is even more serious and there should ideally be no question of citing such papers.
Dear Suman Sakar
Thank you very much for your professional answer.
Samwel
Query regarding useful parts, if necessary, should be made both with the editor and the author(s). Authors might not always tell the truth if the publication has been retracted by the editor on account of serious flaws. Anyway, the paper cannot be cited under References by any means because it is not at all equivalent to a valid publication.
In my opinion a retracted paper should not be cited and referred since it has no credibility at all.
no, a retraction is like it does not exist, it never happened. some of the answers above are incorrect though. many retractions are for very good reasons, such as finding an error at a later date or being unable to repeat your finding. retractions should be encouraged (as long as purposeful misleading has not occurred) and we should all be prepared to retract if we find problems at a later date but a retracted paper is not citable for evidence (unless i suppose you are writing about retracted papers). i was saved by reviewer #3 once for have to do a retraction, a grad student had multiplied by 1000 as opposed to 100 very early in a process and we all missed it! thank you reviewer, but if it had gone out I would have pointed out the error on my behalf and retracted. I actually think this can enhance and not destroy credibility, hiding it destroys credibility.
I'm going to be slightly contrarian to the others since there is some nuance to this that might be field specific. First, we need to distinguish what you are citing. I agree with the others that you should not be citing the results of that study in any way!
However, citations also serve to knowledge the source of ideas that are not your own. If reading that manuscript helped you with your own work then there is an argument to be made that you are obligated to indicate the source of that idea. In a perfect world you would be able to find an earlier paper that the retracted one cites. In the case that you cannot find an appropriate earlier work, then you should cite the retracted work. Per the recommendations of "Retraction Watch" (see https://retractionwatch.com/2018/01/05/ask-retraction-watch-ok-cite-retracted-paper/) though, you should be very clear that the paper was retracted and make it clear why you cited.
Dear Robert Zupko
Thank you very much for your well-explained answer.
Samwel
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