Author: Retraction Watch Staff

A look back at 2024 at Retraction Watch, and forward to 2025

If 2024 felt like a whirlwind, you’re not alone. It was another busy one here at Retraction Watch, too.

Some numbers to tell that story:

  • 2024 was a record traffic year for us, with 7.5 million pageviews – a 15 percent jump from the previous record, set in 2015, thanks to a scoop some longtime readers may remember. 
  • Here’s our top 10 list by traffic (in a thread over at Bluesky, which we joined in November).
  • The Retraction Watch Database – now part of Crossref – has just shy of 55,000 retraction entries, and counting.

A sampling of a few other key accomplishments this year:

Continue reading A look back at 2024 at Retraction Watch, and forward to 2025

Faked data prompts retraction of Nature journal study claiming creation of a new form of carbon

The journal Nature Synthesis has pulled a high-profile article describing the creation of a new type of carbon after a university investigation found some data were made up.

“The authors of the original paper claimed to have created an entirely new form or carbon, graphyne, which is fundamentally different common diamond or graphite,” said Valentin Rodionov, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, whose team has been investigating the now-retracted work for the past two years. 

“If true, this would have been a groundbreaking discovery,” Rodionov told Retraction Watch. His team described its findings in a commentary published on September 2 in the journal. 

Continue reading Faked data prompts retraction of Nature journal study claiming creation of a new form of carbon