Noncompliance with Human Subjects’ Protection Requirements as a Reason for Retracting Papers: Survey of Retraction Notices on Medical Papers Published from 1981 to 2011

ABSTRACT

Though protection of human research subjects is universally recognized as a critical requirement for the ethical conduct of research, few studies have examined retractions of medical articles through apparent noncompliance with that requirement. From our survey of 99 retracted papers published from 1981 to 2011, we found that the basis for those decisions was poorly explained in retraction notices and that most of the articles continued to be cited. In retraction notices, the current manner of explaining failure to protect human subjects is misleading and confusing.

KEYWORDS:

• Citation
• ethical requirement
• human subjects’ protection
• retraction

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Dr. Stefan Eriksson and Prof. Mats G. Hansson (Center for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University, Sweden).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests.