When Journals Retract Articles

Many scholars take the ability to publish in an academic journal as the clear mark of their professional capability. Indeed, the most prestigious journals in both physical and social sciences (economics included) proudly report that their first article rejection rate is upwards of 90%. What this high rejection figure shows is that it is difficult to publish articles within these journals owing to the intense competition and high rejection rates. I am inclined to the belief that very new ideas are difficult to come by and even more difficult to properly reason through and prepare for publication in a manner that would be appreciated by other professionals.

With all my due respect to academic journals and the rigorous peer review that they undertake, the main test of their integrity comes when a retraction is made. Ben Goldacre writes here about the completely opaque manner in which journals respond to retracted articles. Examples given in the piece suggest that most of these journals do not care sufficiently to clarify the reasons for retraction of an article and its purge from the record. To my mind, this is not only an illustration that editors may not care much for their audience but also that they fail to bring the refereeing role to full cycle. I would expect that in the pursuit of truth, these institutions should be interested in correcting the record through full disclosure as that too helps in ascertaining the truth and helping to avoid the perpetration of error.