Retractions in Psychology and Psychiatry in Web of Science : A Bioethical Perspective

A steadfast commitment to scientific integrity should be a fundamental quality of all researchers and is central to their pursuit of knowledge for societal benefit. Failure to uphold this integrity can have serious consequences for the researchers involved and the wider community, as demonstrated by scientific publications that report data or results derived from questionable and unethical practices. This study aimed to evaluate retraction rates in scientific literature within the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Using a bibliometric approach, the study analysed retracted articles indexed in the Web of Science over the past ten years, identifying integrity issues in the fields of psychology and psychiatry and categorizing retractions by year, country, journal, category, and index. The results show that, although the number of retractions in psychology and psychiatry has increased, they still represent a smaller proportion of the total number of retractions than other scientific disciplines. In many cases, the reason for retraction is scientific misconduct (65.56 per cent), with only 23.33 per cent of retractions initiated for honest errors. Most of the time (52.22 per cent), editors initiate the retraction. We discuss these results, paying particular attention to the direct and indirect harm caused to individuals in line with the ethical principle of non-maleficence. This highlights the importance of avoiding the citation of retracted publications as evidence in decision-making processes related to mental health interventions.