Retractions and reputation: How altmetrics demonstrate the digital "ripple effect" of retractions

Prior to the shift to digital publishing, retractions were managed by journal publishers and rarely talked about publicly as they required careful reading of print journals. Now thanks to online publishing and countless digital scholarly discussion hubs, notification of a retraction and discussions around them are public and ongoing 24/7.

Blogs like Retraction Watch, Reddit threads, Twitter and many other digital platforms provide fora for researchers to rapidly speculate, critique, and comment on these retractions, creating online ripples that extend far beyond the original article.

In these cases, most authors, journal publishers, and institutions find out about the backlash, confusion, and miscommunications around these retractions days or weeks after they’ve broken online, leaving all parties on their back foot when it comes to responding.

This webinar walks through one particular case in the biomedical/neuroscience space that directly impacted doctors’ recommendations for treatment around depression — demonstrating the real life consequences of faulty science AND the value of public digital platforms for calling out those mistakes and bringing them to light. Map the ripples leading out from that retraction discussion and their potential implications.