Ken Cor and Gaurav Sood write:
Many claims in a scientific article rest on research done by others. But when the claims are based on flawed research, scientific articles potentially spread misinformation. To shed light on how often scientists base their claims on problematic research, we exploit data on cases where problems with research are broadly publicized. Using data from over 3,000 retracted articles and over 74,000 citations to these articles, we find that at least 31.2% of the citations to retracted articles happen a year after they have been retracted. And that 91.4% of the post-retraction citations are approving—note no concern with the cited article. We augment the analysis with data from an article published in Nature Neuroscience highlighting a serious statistical error in articles published in prominent journals. Data suggest that problematic research was approvingly cited more frequently after the problem was publicized [emphasis added]. Our results have implications for the design of scholarship discovery systems and scientific practice more generally.
I think that by “31.2%” and “91.4%” they mean 30% and 90% . . . but, setting aside this brief lapse in taste or numeracy, their message is important.
P.S. In case you’re wondering why I’d round those numbers: I just don’t think those last digits are conveying any real information. To put it another way, in any sort of replication, I’d expect to see numbers that differ by at least a few percentage points. Reporting as 30% and 90% seems to me to capture what they found without adding meaningless precision.