Flawed Research in Focus: Retracted Publications in Pharmacy Systematic Reviews

Objectives: Publications are retracted for a multitude of reasons; however, identification of retraction notices remains inconsistent and post-retraction use of materials continues. We investigated how retracted publications influence systematic reviews and other evidence-based literature in Pharmacy. We analyzed retracted publications cited in systematic and other comprehensive reviews and examined the application of quality assessment or risk of bias tools.

Methods: Retracted research articles and clinical studies in the fields of Pharmacology, Drug Design, and Toxicology were identified through the RetractionWatch Database. Searches were performed in Scopus and Web of Science to identify all articles and reviews citing each retracted item. These results were collected and deduplicated in EndNote, and uploaded to Rayyan for screening. The included systematic and other comprehensive reviews were then assessed to determine whether the retracted publication was cited positively, negatively, or neutrally in support of the findings. We also examined which, if any, quality assessment or risk of bias tool was used in the systematic review, and what the results of that evaluation were. We conducted an analysis of citation trends to show the impact of retracted publications in systematic reviews and the methodological quality of those reviews.

Results:

Conclusions: