The Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science: Shaping a Research and Implementation Agenda (RISRS) ran from 2020-2022. Since mid-2022, follow-up work is taking place in the NISO Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern Working Group with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation under the RISRS II project.

The RISRS project brought together diverse stakeholders in the academic publishing ecosystem to interact, react, and reflect in real-time on the problems created by the continued citation of retracted research and, more importantly, on possible solutions. Online attendees included researchers, journal editors, research integrity officers, librarians, science writers, and other members of the academic publishing ecosystem. Enhanced collaboration among this diverse groups addressed the challenges faced and developed final recommendations and a series of research-informed outcomes (scientific workshops, policies, and industry tools) designed to improve the scientific publishing industry’s ability to manage the status of retracted scientific papers and reduce the citation and reuse of retracted publications in scientific publishing.

Project Team (2020-2022)

• Dr. Jodi Schneider (PI), Assistant (now Associate) Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. jodi@illinois.edu
• Dr. Nathan Woods contributed to all stages of the literature review and citation analysis, assists the PI in conducting interviews, and leads the qualitative analysis of all materials. nathanw6@illinois.edu
• Project Manager, M.T. Campbell provided logistical and administrative support, and manages communication with stakeholders via email and the project website. mtc@illinois.edu
• Dr. Yuanxi Fu contributed to the literature review.
• Tzu-Kun ‘Esther’ Hsiao lead the citation analysis.
• Randi Proescholdt lead the search update process for the literature review and has analyzed retraction data quality in several databases.
• Yoss Arianlou (undergraduate researcher) contributed to the literature review and is helping at the workshop.
• Vivien Yip (undergraduate researcher) contributed to the literature review.
• Halle Burns is helping at the workshop.
• Katherine Howell contributed to the literature review.

Advisory Board

• Daniele Fanelli, PhD, Fellow in Quantitative Methodology, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Annette Flanagin, RN, MA, FAAN, Executive Managing Editor and Vice President, Editorial Operations, JAMA and The JAMA Network, and Executive Editor, JAMAevidence
• C.K. Gunsalus, J.D., Director, National Center for Professional & Research Ethics, Professor Emerita of Business, and Research Professor at the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Ivan Oransky, MD. Co-Founder of Retraction Watch & Editor in Chief of Spectrum, Distinguished Writer In Residence at New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute, and president of the Association of Health Care Journalists.