Two researchers from the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India identified and analyzed 11,764 articles by scientists from BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) that were retracted between 1989 and 2021. The study, based on data from the Scopus platform and published in the journal Scientometrics, found that Brazil had the least papers on the list. Only 38 of the retracted articles — published in journals or presented at conferences — were written by Brazilians. The largest number of retractions for Brazilian authors occurred in 2018 and 2020, with seven articles in each of those years. The figure places Brazil slightly lower than South Africa (40 retracted papers) and Russia (45), although both of these countries publish fewer scientific articles than Brazil.
China topped the list, with 11,122 papers retracted between 1989 and 2021, followed by India, with 519 in total. The worst period for China was 2010–2011, when just over 4,000 studies were retracted per year, but almost all of them were from conference proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which was affected by major problems with its peer-review process. In more recent years, the number of articles by Chinese authors being retracted has been growing: in 2021, 620 studies were retracted, compared to 166 in 2018.
Republish