Crossref, a nonprofit organization created by academic publishers to generate digital object identifiers (DOIs) for scientific articles and documents, has purchased Retraction Watch’s database, which contains more than 43,000 records of retracted papers and serves as an important source of information for studies on academic communication. The cost of the data was US$775,000, with payments staggered over the next five years.
The acquisition will expand Crossref’s ability to track articles that have been updated, corrected, or retracted and to declare these alterations in its metadata. Publishers affiliated with the organization put a button next to the title of their papers, called the Crossmark, which provides access to the history of each document. The Crossmark informs readers of changes in the status of a study even after it has been downloaded and lets them know if they are reading or citing works that have been rectified or retracted. With the new connection to the Retraction Watch database, the tool will now provide more comprehensive information.
“Collaborating with Retraction Watch augments publisher efforts by filling in critical gaps in our coverage and directly benefits the research community,” said Rachael Lammey, product director at Crossref. Ivan Oransky, cofounder of Retraction Watch, said the agreement will help improve and update the database thanks to sustainable funding. The acquisition will not affect the Retraction Watch news blog, which will remain independent and will continue to supply the database with new records.
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