World Conference on Research Integrity, Hong Kong

1. A journalist’s view:
What makes a story a story?
Ivan Oransky, MD
Co-Founder, Retraction Watch
Distinguished Writer In Residence, NYU (Journalism)
Vice President, Editorial, Medscape
@ivanoransky
WCRI
Hong Kong
June 3, 2019

2. Why We Launched Retraction Watch
August 3, 2010

3. New York Times, October 15, 2010
What Was A Story in 2010?
A Retraction Was Enough

4. The Retraction Watch Database
retractiondatabase.org

5. Retractions By The Numbers
Year # of Retractions # of Papers Published %
2000 38 1MM .004
2008 367 1.2MM .031
2010 4863 1.4MM .347*
2014 868 1.6MM .054
2016 1418 1.8MM .078
For more, see Science (2018):

6. Are We Catching Them All?
Allison et al Nature 2016 http://www.nature.com/news/reproducibility-a-tragedy-of-errors-1.19264

7. Are We Catching Them All?
“Overall, 3.8% of published papers contained
problematic figures, with at least half exhibiting
features suggestive of deliberate manipulation. The
prevalence of papers with problematic images has
risen markedly during the past decade.”

8. We Can’t Keep Up
• Covering allegations – as opposed to
retractions – more than occasionally would be
nearly impossible
• How often are they wrong?
• How do we choose?

9. Is This A Story?
May 31, 2019

10. Nature, November 26, 2014
What Was A Story in 2014?

11. Nautilus, May 21, 2015
What Was A Story in 2015?

12. Undark, May 14, 2018
What Was A Story in 2018?

13. Medscape, March 26, 2019
What Is A Story in 2019?

14. The More, The Merrier

15. What Criteria Do We Use?
• Does it involve a prominent researcher?
• Was the original research well-covered?
• Is there something unique about the reason
for retraction?
• Are others likely to cover it?

16. Documents and Public Records Requests
• Investigation reports
• Correspondence between universities and
journals
• Correspondence between funding agencies
and universities
• Emails (seldom)
• When should these be public?

17. The Role of The Sleuths
Nick Brown and James Heathers
Elisabeth Bik

18. The Role of Anonymous Tips
• Is it verifiable? Are there documents?
• PubPeer
• Do outside experts agree?
• Does the tipster have a good track record?
• If so, do motivations matter?

19. Thank You
ivan@retractionwatch.com
@ivanoransky
http://retractionwatch.com
@retractionwatch