India To Penalize Universities With Too Many Retractions (nature.com)
(Friday August 01, 2025 @05:22PM (msmash)
from the drawing-a-line dept.)
- Reference: 0178536992
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/01/1938215/india-to-penalize-universities-with-too-many-retractions
- Source link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02364-6
India's national university ranking will [1]start penalizing institutions if a sizable number of papers published by their researchers are retracted -- a first for an institutional ranking system. Nature:
> The move is an attempt by the government to address the country's [2]growing number of retractions due to misconduct. Many retractions correct honest mistakes in the literature, but others arise because of misconduct.
>
> India has had more papers retracted than any country apart from China and the United States, according to an analysis of the public database maintained by Retraction Watch of retractions over the past three decades. But whereas less than 1 paper is retracted for every 1,000 papers published in the United States, more than 3 are retracted for every 1,000 published in China, and the figure is 2 per 1,000 in India. The majority in India and China are withdrawn because of misconduct or research-integrity concerns.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02364-6
[2] https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/20/1230236/research-reveals-data-on-which-institutions-are-retraction-hotspots
> The move is an attempt by the government to address the country's [2]growing number of retractions due to misconduct. Many retractions correct honest mistakes in the literature, but others arise because of misconduct.
>
> India has had more papers retracted than any country apart from China and the United States, according to an analysis of the public database maintained by Retraction Watch of retractions over the past three decades. But whereas less than 1 paper is retracted for every 1,000 papers published in the United States, more than 3 are retracted for every 1,000 published in China, and the figure is 2 per 1,000 in India. The majority in India and China are withdrawn because of misconduct or research-integrity concerns.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02364-6
[2] https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/20/1230236/research-reveals-data-on-which-institutions-are-retraction-hotspots
You get what you measure (Score:2)
All this is going to do is make it so that people don't retract bad research.
Human beings are just wasteful creatures. Getting obsessed over that waste is pointless.