Ethiopia has highest rate of scientific paper retraction

Researchers in Ethiopia have a higher percentage of their scientific papers retracted than researchers in any other country, according to a new analysis published in the online repository Zenodo. The analysis, posted Jan. 12, examines the rates at which papers were retracted from the scientific literature from 2022 to 2024. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and Egypt follow Ethiopia as the countries with the highest rate of retractions, according to the study, which was conducted by Achal Agrawal, a data scientist based in Chhattisgarh, India. Agrawal founded India Research Watchdog , a site that keeps tabs on scientific research conducted in India. “Some countries might figure high on this list as they may have an active community of science sleuths working to weed out the bad papers,” Agrawal writes in the study. France, for example, is one of the world’s leaders in research integrity, he notes, and the work of sleuths