Which scientific publishers/journals are worst affected by fraudulent or dubious research papers, and which have done least to clean up their portfolio?
A science-integrity startup says it has answers - here's an exclusive look at the figures @Nature 🧵/1
nature.com/articles/d4158… Context: there are now several integrity tools, such as Papermill Alarm and Signals, that look for red flags in papers. But their creators are generally reluctant to name affected journals. Argos (from @ScitilityPBC ) is the first to go public with its insights. /2

Milestone: 2023 is the first year with more than 10,000 research paper retractions -- smashing previous records.
More than 8,000 of these came from Hindawi (mostly from 'special issues').
Total retractions now >50,000.
My analysis for @Nature 🧵
nature.com/articles/d4158…
Retractions are rising faster than growth in research papers. The rate's tripled over the past decade and is now >0.2% in 2022. (I.e. retraction rate for papers published in that year).
If conference papers are included you see a bump in 2010-11 owing to >10,000 IEEE retractions.

Scientists working with the WHO have acknowledged errors in their COVID excess deaths study.
They revised excess death figures for Germany, down 37%, & Sweden, up 19%.
Germany now well below UK. Not yet on WHO official site: update later in year.🧵
nature.com/articles/d4158… What happened?
First, a reminder: the WHO estimated excess deaths, meaning mortality above expected levels, in the first two years of the pandemic.
Their global estimate (13.3 – 16.6mn excess deaths) was a little more conservative than other studies.

Signs that politicization of US–Chinese science, & the pandemic, is affecting research collaboration?
In 2018, there were more than 15,000 authors on research papers who declared dual affiliations in the US and China. That fell to below 12,500 in 2021.
nature.com/articles/d4158… This fall in dual affiliations may be a factor in why, as has been previously noted, the number of US-China co-authored research papers is also falling (even as US & China papers keep rising).

Feature editor picks from another year of stonkingly good longform reporting in @naturenews.

1. @Sara_Reardon went to Colombia to tell us how scientists are studying former fighters and victims as they try to heal the scars of a 50-year intense conflict. nature.com/articles/d4158… 2. @LizzieGibney finds out how building a base on the Moon would actually work. (And the research that's ramping up right now). nature.com/articles/d4158…