Characteristics of retracted biomedical research papers from Latin American institutions

To characterize retractions of biomedical research papers that had a least one author affiliated with a Latin American (LATAM) institution.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of retracted research papers published in scientific journals focusing on the field of biomedical research and identified by means of the Retraction Watch database. The retracted articles identified were required to have at least one author whose institutional affiliation was in a LATAM country. Data were collected on the authors' countries and institutional affiliations, the reason for retraction, dates of publication and retraction, indexing, journal quartile and impact factor. Reasons for retraction were categorized into three major groups, i.e., scientific misconduct, error, and not specified.

According to Retraction Watch, 181 papers were retracted across 1987-2024 which fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina were the countries that had a retraction rate above 1 per 10 thousand papers throughout the study period. The principal reason for retraction was scientific misconduct (63.0%) followed by honest error (21.5%). The main causes of retraction due to scientific misconduct were ethical and legal problems (33.1%), followed by fabrication/falsification (20.2%).

The number of retractions in some LATAM countries, mainly due to scientific misconduct, highlights the need to strengthen ethical practices in research. Future initiatives should focus on developing and evaluating effective strategies to prevent misconduct and promote scientific integrity.