| Date of Change | Field | Change | Reason |
| 7/13/2020 | Reasons | add: Transfer of Copyright/Ownership | To indicate when a retraction is made solely for a change in copyright or ownership of material. Commonly seen when books/journals change or when copyright reverts back to the authors. Does NOT refer to disputes/violations in ownership or copyright. |
| 10/2/2020 | Reasons | Removed “Prior” from Cited Prior Retracted Work; Changed “Cited” to “Cites” | Articles are removed when cited works are later retracted. The word “Prior” is thus misleading, and there are not enough to create a new reason. Appendix B updated 2/8/2021 |
| 1/4/2021 | Reasons | Added new reason: “Duplicate Publication through Error by Journal/Publisher” | To differentiate Journal/Publisher-caused dual publication of an article from dual submission of article by the authors. NOTE: Changes are being made in the entries at this time. Will note when completed. NOTE: Completed 1/31/2021; Appendix B updated 2/8/2021. |
| 2/8/2021 | Article Type | Changed “Newspaper/Magazine” to “Trade Magazine” | More reflective of the nature of publications included in the database. Appendix C updated to reflect change |
| 2/8/2021 | Reasons | Updated Appendix B -Lack of IRB/IACUC Approval -Withdrawn to Publish in Different Journal -Transfer of Copyright/Ownership -Lack Of Balance/Bias Issues | -Lack of IRB/IACUC Approval definition includes a notation for prior to study initiation, or the failure to provide proof of approval -Withdrawn to Publish in Different Journal: definition added -Transfer of Copyright/Ownership: definition added -Lack Of Balance/Bias Issues: Changed to Bias Issues or Lack of Balance for clarity |
| 2/16/2021 | Reasons | Added “Rogue Editor” | Applies to fraudulent editor (i.e. non-existent or with false credential); applies to those lists as “Guest Editor” as well; Appendix B updated |
| 2/16/2021 | Reasons | Added “Paper Mill” | For papers believed or known to have been produced by a Paper Mill; Appendix B updated |
| 4/20/2021 | Reasons | Added “Original Data not provided” | When the original data is not made available for review by editorial staff; Appendix B updated. |
| 6/29/2021 | Reasons | Added “Withdrawn (out of date)” | For articles retracted as part of the journal’s normal process of keeping guidelines or reviews current. Appendix B updated 6/30/2021 |
| 7/27/2021 | Article Type | Added “Revision” | When the original article is updated and the new version is given its own doi. Not to be confused with “Retract and Replace,” which are generally associated with significant errors in the original article. |
| 10/21/2021 | Reasons | Added Randomly Generated Content | When an article is has sections of text or data that was created via a randomizing algorithm such as Mathgen or Scigen |
| 2/24/2022 | Search Page | Change in the number of search returns | Search return limited to 50 entries |
| 2/24/2022 | Nature of Notice | Addition of notice type: Reinstatement | For cases where the DOI of the original and replacement paper are the same. Avoids the replacement article being tagged as retracted in 3rd-party programs. |
| 1/23/2023 | Subject | additionof new subject: (B/T) Data Science | To apply to the application of computer science, statistics and/or mathematical sciences to datasets to ascertain their meaning/significance |
| 4/24/2023 | Reasons | addition of Concerns/Issues about Human Subject Welfare and Concerns/Issues about Animal Welfare | to address concerns as to the ethical treatment of case or study subjects |
| 5/8/2023 | Reasons | addition of “EOC Lifted” | to be used when an Expression of Concern removed or is no longer considered applicable |
| 6/7/2023 | Reasons Page on blogsite | Taken from Dissertation/Thesis | Definition added to the “Reasons” blogpage; |
| 6/7/2023 | Reasons | Concerns/Issues with Peer Review | For when Peer Review has not been performed, or questions about how well it has been perfomed is mentioned as part of the retraction. |
| 9/23/2024 | Reasons | Breach of Policy by Third Party | Removed |
| 9/23/2024 | Reasons | Concerns/Issues about Article | Added: Any question, controversy or dispute about published content, or undefined sections of it. |
| 9/23/2024 | Reasons | Concerns/Issues about Authorship | Amended to 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. |
| 9/23/2024 | Reasons | Contamination of Materials (General) and Contamination of Reagents | Contamination of Reagents removed, and Contamination of Materials has “(General)” removed: Impurities were found or suspected within compounds, reagents or solutions used in experiments. |
| 9/23/2024 | Reasons | Withdrawal | Amended to Removed: The original article is removed from access on the journal’s website or publishing platform. |