China's Price of Retraction: Wasted Research Funding and Beyond

ABSTRACT Although China faces a constantly increasing number of retractions and underlying systemic research integrity issues, its financial losses attributable to funded‐but‐retracted publications remain largely unexplored. Drawing on Beall's List and the Retraction Watch Database, we analyzed funding data and article processing charges (APCs) for 82 retracted publications in potential predatory journals (PPJs). Our analyses reveal that approximately USD 0.25 million from 277 research grants, awarded by national, provincial, local, and institutional funders, was spent on APCs for publications subsequently retracted for 10 reasons. Based on these findings on PPJ retractions, we estimate that the total financial loss associated with China‐affiliated retracted publications is substantial. Accordingly, we argue that Chinese research funders should recover their research funding wasted on retracted publications, sanction accountable authors of retracted publications, and strengthen their warning systems against predatory publishing. Finally, we call for further empirical research to comprehensively quantify financial losses across all China‐affiliated retracted publications and systematically track the presence of Chinese research funders in the retracted literature.