Effect of retracting randomised controlled trial reports

What is it about?

In cases of fraud, fabrication, or poor scientific conduct in the reporting of randomised controlled trials a retraction is required. A retraction marks that these publications have been removed and should either not be trusted or should be treated with caution. We would hope that these articles would be used less by other authors once they are aware of the retraction. In this article we look at clinical trials that have been retracted and assess whether the number of other articles mentioning them decreases after the retraction.

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Why is it important?

If randomised controlled trials that are retracted continue to inform further research, clinical practice, or policy after retraction then this could lead to harm of people receiving the treatments that these trials claimed to test or to wasting of funds.