Rene Aquarius, Floris Schoeters, Nick Wise, Alex Glynn, Guillaume Cabanac
{"title":"The existence of stealth corrections in scientific literature -- a threat to scientific integrity","authors":"Rene Aquarius, Floris Schoeters, Nick Wise, Alex Glynn, Guillaume Cabanac","doi":"arxiv-2409.06852","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Thorough maintenance of the scientific record is needed to\nensure the trustworthiness of its content. This can be undermined by a stealth\ncorrection, which is at least one post-publication change made to a scientific\narticle, without providing a correction note or any other indicator that the\npublication was temporarily or permanently altered. In this paper we provide\nseveral examples of stealth corrections in order to demonstrate that these\nexist within the scientific literature. As far as we are aware, no\ndocumentation of such stealth corrections was previously reported in the\nscientific literature. Methods: We identified stealth corrections ourselves, or found already\nreported ones on the public database pubpeer.com or through social media\naccounts of known science sleuths. Results: In total we report 131 articles that were affected by stealth\ncorrections and were published between 2005 and 2024. These stealth corrections\nwere found among multiple publishers and scientific fields. Conclusion: and recommendations Stealth corrections exist in the scientific\nliterature. This needs to end immediately as it threatens scientific integrity.\nWe recommend the following: 1) Tracking all changes to the published record by\nall publishers in an open, uniform and transparent manner, preferably by online\nsubmission systems that log every change publicly, making stealth corrections\nimpossible; 2) Clear definitions and guidelines on all types of corrections; 3)\nSupport sustained vigilance of the scientific community to publicly register\nstealth corrections.","PeriodicalId":501285,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - CS - Digital Libraries","volume":"110 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - CS - Digital Libraries","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2409.06852","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: Thorough maintenance of the scientific record is needed to
ensure the trustworthiness of its content. This can be undermined by a stealth
correction, which is at least one post-publication change made to a scientific
article, without providing a correction note or any other indicator that the
publication was temporarily or permanently altered. In this paper we provide
several examples of stealth corrections in order to demonstrate that these
exist within the scientific literature. As far as we are aware, no
documentation of such stealth corrections was previously reported in the
scientific literature. Methods: We identified stealth corrections ourselves, or found already
reported ones on the public database pubpeer.com or through social media
accounts of known science sleuths. Results: In total we report 131 articles that were affected by stealth
corrections and were published between 2005 and 2024. These stealth corrections
were found among multiple publishers and scientific fields. Conclusion: and recommendations Stealth corrections exist in the scientific
literature. This needs to end immediately as it threatens scientific integrity.
We recommend the following: 1) Tracking all changes to the published record by
all publishers in an open, uniform and transparent manner, preferably by online
submission systems that log every change publicly, making stealth corrections
impossible; 2) Clear definitions and guidelines on all types of corrections; 3)
Support sustained vigilance of the scientific community to publicly register
stealth corrections.