Exploration of the prevention and management of scientific research data misconduct based on retracted papers in the biomedical field / 中华医学科研管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:By analyzing the biomedical papers retracted due to the reason that " original data not provided" , to discuss the necessity of preventing scientific data misconduct and the feasible solutions for its management.Methods:Data of the international papers that were published from Jan 2011 to Dec 2021 and retracted due to " original data not provided" were retrieved from Retraction Watch Database. The data of time distribution, institution, journal sources, reasons for retraction, and disciplinary distribution were statistically analyzed and visually processed by using software packages of Excel, Python 3.7, Gephi 0.92.Results:A total number of 529 papers published in the biomedical field were retracted due to " original data not provided" , and the time of publication and retraction occurred mainly in 2019 (27.41%) and 2021 (41.97%). In addition to the reason " original data not provided" used as search term, the reasons for withdrawal were mainly data and image problems caused by scientific data misconduct, and reasons related to the discovery and investigation process of the paper, and these reasons had a strong co-linear relationship. Besides, the 4 disciplinary of biology-cellular, biology-cancer, genetics, medicine-oncology also had a strong co-linear relationship.Conclusions:It is necessary to incorporating scientific research data management into the scientific research code of conduct, strengthen the training on the code of conduct for original scientific research records keeping, establish the scientific research data review mechanism, and promote the prevention and governance of scientific research data misconduct in the biomedical field.