A very recent example of Lancet retracting (or the author..hmmm) the paper on HCQ treatment for Covid-19 says it all about how every renowned journal today is ready to accept any thing and everything incorporating the key word 'COVID-19'! Its a 'rat race' of citation and impact of high citation that is all pushing the engine of todays so called medical literature factories completely undermining the real ethos of a speciality journal. It is very rare to find a journal not deviating from its primary mandate and continue to serve the scientific community at large with good 'science'. Much of it depends on the Journal editors actually and therefore, editorial process should be supervised and regulated by an oversight committee of ICMJE. Another solution is that, editorial process also must be peer reviewed.

Many thanks Dr Jose for sharing your opinion.

I agree with you dr Rohan Magoon. In the present scenerio retraction of articles have become quite common in today’s competitive world. This could be due to multiple reasons both at the journal as well as authors end.

Retraction question a lot of things.

Somehow, I feel the stress of publish or perish may be a primary reason for the same.

Strict editorial review, peer review and availability of data review can prevent this to a large extent.

There should be strict punishments also for the authors or the sponsors (my thoughts)

Journel should write reasons/ guidelines of retraction in authors instruction area for more transparency, it will be beneficial for new authors.

Thanks Dr Neeti Makhija, Pranav Ish and Ruchi Ohri for sharing thoughts on the topic...

As regards retraction at the journal end could be due to the fact that the manuscript is not properly peer reviewed by reviewers to check for the fact that the article is already published. It could be, that the editor has decided on his/ her own regarding accepting the paper and has not checked for plegarism. In such a situation later on declares retration.

At the authors end in case manuscript is not signed by all, and a conflict of interest develops. In such a situation the authors may retract paper

A very recent example of Lancet retracting (or the author..hmmm) the paper on HCQ treatment for Covid-19 says it all about how every renowned journal today is ready to accept any thing and everything incorporating the key word 'COVID-19'! Its a 'rat race' of citation and impact of high citation that is all pushing the engine of todays so called medical literature factories completely undermining the real ethos of a speciality journal. It is very rare to find a journal not deviating from its primary mandate and continue to serve the scientific community at large with good 'science'. Much of it depends on the Journal editors actually and therefore, editorial process should be supervised and regulated by an oversight committee of ICMJE. Another solution is that, editorial process also must be peer reviewed.

Very pertinent points Sir. Can't agree more with you...

You kind of manage to answer my another RG question also: Are 'trivial' and many repackaged topics being published in the name of COVID-19 pandemic- Open to debate?

I agree with you dr Arindam that the publication process mainly depends on the editor, whereas as it should be actually in accordance to set up norms and should be monitored.