Retracted or Withdrawn Publications in Journals Relating to Plastic Surgery

The aim of this study was to determine how many papers have been retracted or withdrawn, and for what reason, in journals relating to plastic surgery. PubMed and SCOPUS were used, with the search terms (retracted OR withdrawn) AND (article OR publication OR paper) AND {(plastic surgery) OR (cosmetic surgery) OR (maxillofacial surgery) OR (craniofacial surgery)}. The papers were analyzed and classified according to the reason for retraction or withdrawal, journal name, publication year, and author. In the PubMed and SCOPUS, 227 and 114 titles were found, respectively, from which 34 duplicate titles were removed. An additional 261 titles which did not include "retracted'' or "withdrawn'' were removed, leaving 46 papers and 6 mined papers were added. The 52 full texts (42 "retracted'' and 10 "withdrawn'') were analyzed. The most frequent reason for retraction or withdrawal was duplication (17, 32.7%) followed by the author's request (9, 17.3%), plagiarism (7, 13.5%), and lack of permission (5, 9.6%). Retraction was most common in Plast Reconstr Surg (6, 12%) followed by Aesthetic Plast Surg (4, 7.9%), Ann Plast Surg (2, 3.9%), J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg (2, 3.9%), and Surg Res (2, 3.9%). Most authors retracted a paper just once; however, 6 authors retracted a paper twice or more. The first retraction was found in 1991, and the number of retractions showed a tendency to increase over time. However, the duplication rate did not change over time (R-2 = 0.178, P = 0.117). Journal reviewers, as well as production editors, should check for duplication, plagiarism, or permission-related problems.