How Ten Publishers Retract Research

Abstract

Retractions are the primary mechanism for correcting the scholarly record, yet publishers differ markedly in how they use them. We present a bibliometric analysis of 46,087 retractions across 10 major publishers using data from the Retraction Watch database (1997-2026), examining retraction rates, reasons, temporal trends, and geographic distributions, among other dimensions. Normalized retraction rates vary by two orders of magnitude, from Elsevier's 3.97 per 10,000 publications to Hindawi's 320.02. China-affiliated authors account for the largest share of retractions at every publisher. Retraction lags and reason profiles also vary widely across publishers. Among the ten publishers, ACM is an outlier in its retraction profile. ACM's normalized rate is mid-range (5.65), yet 98.3% of its 354 retractions are related to one incident. Seven of the ten most common global retraction reasons (including misconduct, plagiarism, and data concerns) are entirely absent from ACM's record. ACM's first retraction dates to 2020, despite a catalog dating to 1997. ACM self-describes its retraction threshold as "extremely high." We discuss this threshold in relation to the COPE retraction guidelines and the implications of ACM's non-public dark archive of removed works.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Distribution of article types per publisher. Bars show relative frequency (%). Absolute counts are annotated at bar ends. Minor types are grouped as "Other."
• Figure 2: Number of retractions per quarter (log scale) for each publisher. The logarithmic y-axis highlights differences in magnitude across publishers.
• Figure 3: Top ten consolidated retraction reasons per publisher. Bars show relative frequency (%). Absolute counts are annotated at bar ends. Meta-reasons (e.g., Investigation by Journal/Publisher) are excluded.
• Figure 4: Top ten retraction reasons by top ten author countries for each publisher. Cell values indicate co-occurrence counts; color intensity follows a logarithmic scale. Empty cells denote zero co-occurrences.
• Figure 5: Top 10 author countries per publisher (relative frequency, %). Country affiliations are expanded; retractions listing multiple countries contribute to each listed country.