Retracted Orthopaedic Research Publications. Where do we stand: A Review

Author(s): Prof Mir Sadat-Ali MBBS, MS, FRCS, PhD, D Orth

Retraction of published articles is universal and is ever-increasing. There is limited data on retracted articles in orthopaedics, both in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular. The objective of the study was to evaluate the orthopaedic retracted articles in the literature with special emphasis on Saudi Arabia.

Four databases, Scopus, www.pubmed.gov, Web of Science and the website Retraction Watch (www.retractionwatch.com), were searched with the keywords of “orthopaedic”; “bone and joint, “musculoskeletal disease “, sports medicine” , Saudi Arabia, retractions in orthopaedic research for the period of 1989 to 2025 were performed.

Between 1989 and 2025, 1246 publications have been retracted. Overall, 1246 publications were cited by 14,870 researchers who were misled by these publications, endangering patients' lives and, on the basis of the research, decisions might have been taken in patient care. Over the years the number of retracted publications have increased reaching its peak in 2022 (21.8%) From Saudi Arabia 22 (1.76%) publications were retracted and 57 institutions were co-authoring these publications.

The field of orthopaedics is not immune to publications based on fraudulent data, inappropriate authorship claims, and general misconduct related to professional codes of ethics which appears to be increasing. We believe that universities should take cognizance of researchers who are rampantly publishing articles which are retracted due to any reason and they should be reprimanded as this will cause bedlam in clinical practice and end up in patient harm.