| Reason | Description |
| Author Unresponsive | Author(s) lack of communication after prior contact by Journal, Publisher or other original Authors |
| Bias Issues or Lack of Balance | Failure to maintain objectivity in the presentation or analysis of information |
| Breach of Policy by Author | A violation of the Journal, Publisher or Institutional accepted practices by the author |
| Cites Retracted Work | A retracted item is used in citations or referencing |
| Civil Proceedings | Non-criminal litigation arising from the publication of the original article or the related notice(s) |
| Complaints about Author | Allegations made strictly about the author without respect to the original article |
| Complaints about Company/Institution | Allegations made strictly about the author’s affiliation(s) without respect to the original article |
| Complaints about Third Party | Allegations made strictly about those not the author or the author’s affiliation(s) without respect to the original article |
| Concerns/Issues about Animal Welfare | Any question, controversy or dispute of the treatment of non-human study subjects |
| Concern/Issues about Article | Any question, controversy or dispute about published content, or undefined sections of it. |
| Concerns/Issues About Authorship/Affiliation | Any question, controversy or dispute about authorship and/or affiliation, except for false/forged authorship or false/forged affiliation. False/forged authorship or false/forged affiliation are covered under their own reasons. |
| Concerns/Issues About Data | Any question, controversy or dispute over the validity of the data |
| Concerns/Issues about Human Subject Welfare | Any question, controversy or dispute of the treatment of human study subjects |
| Concerns/Issues About Image | Any question, controversy or dispute over the validity of the image |
| Concerns/Issues about Referencing/Attributions | Any question, controversy or dispute over whether ideas, analyses, text or data are properly credited to the originator |
| Concerns/Issues About Results | Any question, controversy or dispute about the results and/or conclusions. |
| Concerns/Issues about Third Party Involvement | Any question, controversy or dispute over the rightful claim to authorship, excluding forged authorship |
| Concerns/Issues with Peer Review | The peer review was not performed through journal error, or there are problems with the peer review that are not specified. |
| Conflict of Interest | Authors having affiliations with companies, associations, or institutions that may serve to influence their belief about their findings |
| Contamination of Cell Lines/Tissues | Impurities found within cell lines or tissues |
| Contamination of Materials | Impurities were found or suspected within compounds, reagents or solutions used in experiments. |
| Copyright Claims | Dispute concerning right of ownership of a publication |
| Criminal Proceedings | Court actions that may result in incarceration or fines arising from the publication of the original article or the related notice(s) |
| Date of Retraction/Other Unknown | A lack of publishing date given on the notice – or the date on the notice is not representative of the actual notice date. Commonly found when Publishers overwrite the original article’s HTML page with the retraction notice, without changing the publication date to reflect such. |
| Doing the Right Thing | An attribution made by co-founders of Retraction Watch indicating admirable behavior by one of the involved parties |
| Duplication of Article | Also known as “self-plagiarism”. Used when an entire published item, or undefined sections of it, written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Duplication of Data | Also known as “self-plagiarism”. Used when the all or part of the data from an item written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Duplication of Image | Also known as “self-plagiarism”. Used when an image from an item written by one or all authors of the original article is repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Duplication of Text | Also known as “self-plagiarism”. Used when sections of text from an item written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Duplicate Publication through Error by Journal/Publisher | Used when a Journal or Publisher incorrectly publishes the same article more than once. Differs from Duplication of Article, which is typically due to dual submission by the article’s authors. |
| EOC Lifted | Expression of Concern has been removed or is no longer applicable |
| Error by Journal/Publisher | A mistake attributed to a Journal Editor or Publisher |
| Error by Third Party | A mistake attributed to a person or other, who is not an author or representative of the Journal or Publisher |
| Error in Analyses | A mistake made in the evaluation of the data or calculations |
| Error in Cell Lines/Tissues | A mistake made in the identification of cell lines or tissues, or the choice of an incorrect cell line or tissue |
| Error in Data | A mistake made in the data, either in data entry, gathering or identification |
| Error in Image | A mistake made in the preparation or printing of an image |
| Error in Materials (General) | A mistake made in the choice of materials in the performance of experiments (eg., reagents, mixing bowls, etc) |
| Error in Methods | A mistake made in the experimental protocol, either in following the wrong protocol, or in erring during the performance of the protocol |
| Error in Results and/or Conclusions | A mistake made in determining the results or establishing conclusions from an experiment or analysis |
| Error in Text | A mistake made in the written portion of the item |
| Ethical Violations by Author | When an author performs an action contrary to accepted standards of behavior. Generally used only when stated as such in the notice and no other specific reason (e.g., duplication of image) is given. |
| Ethical Violations by Third Party | When any person not an author performs an action contrary to accepted standards of behavior. Generally used only when stated as such in the notice and no other specific reason (e.g., duplication of image) is given. |
| Euphemisms for Duplication | The notice does not clearly state that the authors reused ideas, text, or images from one of their previously published items without suitable citation |
| Euphemisms for Misconduct | The notice does not clearly state that the reason for the notice is due to fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism by one or all the authors, despite an institutional report stating such. |
| Euphemisms for Plagiarism | The notice does not clearly state that the authors reused ideas, text, or images, without suitable citation, from items published by those not the authors |
| Fake Peer Review | The peer review was intentionally not performed in accordance with the journal’s guidelines or ethical standards |
| Falsification/Fabrication of Data | Intentional changes to data so that it is not representative of the actual finding |
| Falsification/Fabrication of Image | Intentional changes to an image so that it is not representative of the actual data |
| Falsification/Fabrication of Results | Intentional changes to results so that it is not representative of the actual finding |
| Forged Authorship | The fraudulent use of an author name in submitting a manuscript for publication |
| Hoax Paper | Paper intentionally drafted with fraudulent data or information with the specific intent of testing a journal’s or publisher’s manuscript acceptance policies |
| Informed/Patient Consent – None/Withdrawn | When the full risks and benefits from being in an experiment are not provided to and accepted by the participant, or the participant chooses to later recant their approval |
| Investigation by Company/Institution | An evaluation of allegations by the affiliations of one or all of the authors |
| Investigation by Journal/Publisher | An evaluation of allegations by the Journal or Publisher |
| Investigation by ORI | An evaluation of allegations by the United State Office of Research Integrity |
| Investigation by Third Party | An evaluation of allegations by a person, company or institution not the Authors, Journal, Publisher or ORI |
| Lack of Approval from Author | Failure to obtain agreement from original author(s) |
| Lack of Approval from Company/Institution | Failure to obtain agreement from Company/Institution |
| Lack of Approval from Third Party | Failure to obtain agreement from Third Party |
| Lack of IRB/IACUC Approval | Failure to obtain consent from the institutional ethical review board overseeing human or animal experimentation prior to initiation of study, or failure to provide proof of such |
| Legal Reasons/Legal Threats | Actions taken to avoid or foster litigation |
| Manipulation of Images | The changing of the presentation of an image by reversal, rotation or similar action |
| Manipulation of Results | The changing of the presentation of results which may lead to conclusions not otherwise warranted |
| Miscommunication by Author | Error in messaging from or to author |
| Miscommunication by Company/Institution | Error in messaging from or to authors’ affiliations |
| Miscommunication by Journal/Publisher | Error in messaging from or to Journal or Publisher |
| Miscommunication by Third Party | Error in messaging from or to any party not the author, affiliations, journal of publisher |
| Misconduct – Official Investigation/Finding | Finding of misconduct after investigation by incorporated company, institution of governmental agency |
| Misconduct by Author | Statement Journal, Publisher, Company, Institution, Governmental Agency, or Author that author committed misconduct |
| Misconduct by Company/Institution | Statement Journal, Publisher, Company, Institution, or Governmental Agency that Company/Institution committed misconduct |
| Misconduct by Third Party | Statement Journal, Publisher, Company, Institution, or Governmental Agency that a third party committed misconduct |
| No Further Action | Generally applicable to Expressions of Concern – Statement by Editor or Publisher that the notice in question is the final disposition |
| Nonpayment of Fees/Refusal to Pay | Lack of payment of full amount due for services rendered or for rights of access |
| Notice – Lack of | No Notice was published by the Journal or Publisher, and the article is removed from the publishing platform. |
| Notice – Limited or No Information | A notice provides minimal information as to the cause of the notice, or the original item is watermaked as retracted or corrected without explanation |
| Notice – Unable to Access via current resources | The notice is paywalled, only in print, or in some form unavailable for inspection at this time. |
| Objections by Author(s) | A complaint by any of the original authors or refusal to agree actions taken by the Journal or Publisher |
| Objections by Company/Institution | A complaint by any of the original authors’ affiliation(s) or refusal by same to agree actions taken by the Journal or Publisher |
| Objections by Third Party | A complaint by any person, company or institution not of the original authors, or refusal by same to agree actions taken by the Journal or Publisher |
| Original Data not Provided | The original data or images for the published study is no longer available or is not given to the editorial staff. |
| Paper Mill | A business that creates and sells research papers where the buyer(s) claim authorship; the business is generally unacknowledged as a contributor. |
| Plagiarism of Article | Used when an entire published item, or undefined sections of it, and not written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Plagiarism of Data | Used when the all or part of the data from an item not written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Plagiarism of Image | Used when an image from an item not written by one or all authors of the original article is repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Plagiarism of Text | Used when sections of text from an item not written by one or all authors of the original article, are repeated in the original article without appropriate citation. |
| Publishing Ban | A Journal or Publisher states that no manuscripts will be acceptance from one or all the authors of the original article. It can be for a limited time, or indefinitely. |
| Randomly Generated Content | Text or data that was created via a randomizing algorithm such as Mathgen or Scigen |
| Results Not Reproducible | Experiments conducted, using the same materials and methods, that fail to replicate the finding of the original article |
| Retract and Replace | The permanent change of an item to a non-citable status, with a subsequent republication by the same journal after substantial changes to the item |
| Rogue Editor | Applies to fraudulent editor (i.e. non-existent or with false credential); applies to those lists as “Guest Editor” as well; |
| Sabotage of Materials | An intentional action to surreptitiously change or contaminate experimental ingredients in order to artificially change the experimental outcome |
| Sabotage of Methods | An intentional action to surreptitiously change or contaminate experimental instruments or tools in order to artificially change the experimental outcome |
| Salami Slicing | The publication of several articles by using the same (small) dataset, but by breaking it into sections, with the intent of exploiting a limited data set for the production of several published works This does not apply to large multi-group studies such as the Framingham Heart Study. |
| Taken from Dissertation/Thesis | The duplicated or plagerized item was an academic Dissertation or Thesis. |
| Temporary Removal | An original article is removed from the Journal’s publishing platform for an undefined period of time, after which, if returned to the publishing platform, it appears with minimal or no substantial changes |
| Transfer of Copyright/Ownership | Articles removed from a publishing platform due to change in the Copyright/Ownership of the article |
| Unreliable Data | The accuracy or validity of the data is questionable |
| Unreliable Image | The accuracy or validity of the image is questionable |
| Unreliable Results | The accuracy or validity of the results is questionable |
| Updated to Correction | A prior notice has been changed to the status of a Correction |
| Updated to Retraction | A prior notice has been changed to the status of a Retraction |
| Upgrade/Update of Prior Notice | Either a change to or affirmation of a prior notice |
| Removed | The original article is removed from access on the journal’s website or publishing platform. |
| Withdrawn (out of date) | The article has been retracted as part of the journal’s normal process of keeping guidelines or reviews current for professional use. |
| Withdrawn to Publish in Different Journal | Journal/Publisher removed an article from one journal platform to publish in a different journal platform. |