WYDave - 3/29/2025 22:52

I take RetractionWatch as the tip of the iceberg. The reason(s) why many of these papers are being retracted is because people who are not peer reviewers are finding errors, fraud, and academic dishonesty. There's only so many people who have the time, experience and expertise in the field(s), and possibly the access to the data involved to enable them to raise these issues.

That so many papers in supposedly peer-reviewed journals are being retracted is a sign that the peer-review process isn't working.

You’re right, peer review and editor scrutiny didn’t work if the paper gets published…… but then real “peers” get to see it. These are the people in the field that have knowledge about the subject. They didn’t get asked to review the paper before publication, but they are sure the ones that will be able to scrutinize it after publication. If it’s easily disproven, it’s a quicker process to shoot it down, but if it looks good and people begin to try to repeat it or use it and build on it, then the “ship” may sail on for a while before it hits the rocks.