Abstract:

Retracting publication is a mechanism to uncover problematic research and maintain scientific norms by scientific communities with journals as the core. By analyzing the information of problematic publications and the retraction statements, we can reveal some anomie phenomenon, including scientific misconduct and scientific mistakes, etc. With the literature review of the research on informetric analysis of retracted publications, a structure of "FeatureImpactReason" has been found in themes and contents. The feature analysis refers to five dimensions, including time distribution, geographical distribution, category and journal, research subject and retracted timelag. The impact analysis based on citation contains four aspects, including description of cited condition, reasons and impact factors, additional impact, and countermeasures. Informatics analysis on retraction reasons can be summarized as classification and statistics, difference of features with different reasons, and analysis on the specific reason based on retraction statement. After responding to the doubt whether it is reasonable to take retracted publications as proxy measures of scientific misconducts, this study concludes the limitation of current studies on informetric analysis on retracted publications, including deficiency of theoretical knowledge, insufficient research data, methods and imperfection of indicators that need to be improved. Finally, it is pointed out that the future research on informetric analysis of retracted publications needs to be indepth, comprehensive and systematic.

Key words: Retracted publication, Informetric analysis, Scientific norm, Feature of retracted publications, Scientific impact, Retraction reason