Five years ago today, we wrote our first post, “Why write a blog about retractions?” And although every year since has been terrific, this year we have the most to celebrate so far. Here are some highlights:
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded us a $400,000 grant to create a comprehensive database of retractions, allowing us to hire our first staff writer.
- Alison McCook and Shannon Palus joined the team as full-time editor and staff reporter, respectively.
- We were profiled in The New York Times and Le Monde.
- We published our first news feature on fake peer reviews, in Nature, followed by a look in Nautilus at how the world’s retraction record holder, Yoshitaka Fujii, was caught.
- We published our first scholarly paper, a review of the retraction literature, in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.
- We surpassed 20 million cumulative page views, and 10,000 subscribers to our email alerts.
And we’re starting this next year with a bang. We’re thrilled to announce that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation has awarded our parent organization, The Center For Scientific Integrity, a $300,000 grant to continue work on the database and support other projects. The $150,000 per year for two years will allow us to hire another staff writer and a research assistant, and support other initiatives including redesigning our site, planning a conference, and writing a book. (The endeavor remains a volunteer effort for Adam and Ivan.)
Speaking of The Center For Scientific Integrity, it has just earned its 501(c)3 designation, meaning that your contributions are now tax-deductible. The generosity of the Arnold and MacArthur Foundations has made, and will continue to make, a great deal possible, but there are always new projects to fund. So if you’re wondering what to get us for our fifth anniversary, well, click here.
Thank you, dear readers. As we’ve said multiple times over the years, but can’t be said enough, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Happy birthday RW!! And congratulations on your new accomplishments!
Congratulations RW! You did, and continue to do, a terrific job. During lectures for Medical School students, I always show a link taken from your website to a paper that was retracted…
Congrats to you all, keep up the good work!
Well deserved. Congratulations, and keep up the good work!
Wow, awesome! Well deserved award.
Nice to see the importance of your work being widely recognized.
Congratulations! A site devoted to honesty and integrity…who would have guessed it? All honors and support are well deserved.
Congratulations, keep up the good work. May you go from strength to strength.
Bon anniversaire et BRAVO
wonderful news. glad you can keep up the good work!
This is great news and so well deserved. Congratulations!
Great !!! I’m proud to be part of this as integrity and honesty are criteria laughed upon by those you uncover .Keep up the good work and would be elated to participate in your endeavours and especially a conference on peer review. I defended some 18 months ago a thesis on open access and peer review and would be honoured to publish with you. Again Great and congrats ‘ !!!!!