Tracking the integrity of the OBGYN literature
A searchable record of every obstetrics & gynaecology retraction, together with the other papers published by the authors involved — so editors and authors can see the whole picture in one place.
About OBGYN Retraction Monitor
The OBGYN Retraction Monitor is a non-commercial research tool intended to help journal editors and integrity researchers identify papers authored by potentially untrustworthy researchers. It is not affiliated with Retraction Watch, OpenAlex, or the National Library of Medicine, and no data are monetised.
Created by Jim Thornton
Jim Thornton is emeritus professor of obstetrics & gynaecology, University of Nottingham, UK. Previously a clinical triallist and editor, including past Editor in Chief European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology (EJOG) and British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (BJOG).
Where the data come from
This app contains all OBGYN retractions in the Retraction Watch database, the most comprehensive and reliable index of retracted research publications, released under CC BY 4.0. The app also includes all papers published by an author with a retraction; that data comes from OpenAlex, with authors linked by ORCID or OpenAlex author ID. OpenAlex provides open scholarly metadata including persistent author identifiers, released under CC0. All papers also have a study type (RCT, case report, review and so on) populated from PubMed, which provides journal metadata in the public domain.
The database is filterable on author name, journal, reason for retraction, years of publication and study type.
Concern level
Reasons for retractions are classified, by this app’s algorithm, into concern levels. Strong suspicion of author misconduct; Ambiguous — the retraction notice does not settle the question; Citation-derived — e.g. a review retracted because it included data from a retracted paper; Honest error; and Administrative. Retractions and other unmarked articles by authors with retractions are listed separately. More details here.
How to use it
Journal editors
Pin your journal to see all unmarked papers by authors with a retraction in that journal. If the list is unmanageable, filter by concern level ‘strong’, by authors with two or more retractions, or by study type — RCTs, for example.
Authors
Find and pin yourself to see your own retractions and unmarked publications. If anything is unexpected or missing, the likely cause is your OpenAlex author ID — contact support@openalex.zendesk.com.
If the concern level for one of your retracted articles seems wrong, check the retraction reasons listed by Retraction Watch. If it still seems wrong, contact me.
Cautions
A retraction does not necessarily imply guilt or malicious intent. Concern level is only a guide — read the papers and the retraction notes. Author linkage is also inexact: we use the OpenAlex author ID, whose disambiguation algorithm is regularly updated. OpenAlex encourages correction requests from individual authors. To find your OpenAlex author ID click here. To read more about OpenAlex’s disambiguation algorithm click here.
retracted OBGYN articles, and OBGYN authors with at least one retraction. From Retraction Watch.
OBGYN articles (marked and unmarked) by an author with at least one retraction. Authors linked by ORCID or OpenAlex.
Controlled access. Currently restricted to approved users. Removing controlled access soon.