It’s been a great 12 months for Retraction Watch.
We took some major steps as an organization. Some highlights:
February:
- Thanks to our $400,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to create a comprehensive database of retractions, we hired our first full-time editor, Alison McCook.
May:
- How the biggest fabricator in science got caught: We profiled the career of anesthesiologist Yoshitaka Fujii for Nautilus.
- We were profiled by Le Monde.
- We break the news that a high-profile Science paper about changing people’s minds regarding gay marriage was going to be retracted — and the news breaks our site.
June:
- We welcomed staff writer Shannon Palus to our team.
- We release a leaderboard of the 10 researchers with the most retractions. Our number one spot, not surprisingly, is Yoshitaka Fujii — and at 183 retractions, we imagine he’ll hold that position for quite a while.
- We were profiled by the New York Times.
August:
- On our fifth anniversary, we announced a generous $300,000 grant from the Arnold Foundation.
September:
- We hired our first full-time researcher, Alison Abritis, who helps out with a variety of projects, ranging from the database of retractions we’re building, to scholarly research, and a book on scientific fraud.
November:
December:
- We announced a $130,000 grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to The Center For Scientific Integrity, our parent non-profit organization, to work on a strategic plan for our future.
- Which retracted papers likely had the biggest impact on their respective fields? We explored that question in a new leaderboard that catalogs the top 10 most-cited retracted papers. Interestingly, 4 of the 10 were retracted this year, making it a big year for high-profile retractions.
Now, some numbers:
- Cumulative page views since our launch in August 2010: More than 20 million
- Subscribers to our email alerts: More than 11,000
- Facebook likes: More than 5,000
- Twitter followers: Nearly 10,000
And the numbers we’re most grateful for: 39 individual donors made gifts to The Center For Scientific Integrity, totaling just shy of $10,000. That unrestricted funding will allow us to grow even more in 2016. It’s not too late to make an end-of-year tax-deductible donation, either. Here’s how.
As we say frequently, but not often enough, we couldn’t have done any of this without our readers. Thank you, and all the best in 2016!
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