Communications of the ACM
One Publisher, More Than 7,000 Retractions
Some 40% of the retractions in the Retraction Watch database have a single curious origin. Over the past decade, one publisher—the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers—has quietly retracted thousands of conference abstracts.
Most of the abstracts are from IEEE conferences that took place between 2009 and 2011. The 2011 International Conference on E-Business and E-Government alone resulted in retractions of more than 1,200 abstracts. In all, IEEE has retracted more than 7,300 such abstracts. Most of the authors are based in China, and their papers covered topics as diverse as physical sciences, business, technology, and social sciences.
Many of the retraction notices offer few specifics about the reason. IEEE hasn't given many details. The group sponsors more than 1,700 conferences each year and requires peer review of all abstracts and papers before publication. But several years ago, in its decades-old catalog of abstracts, IEEE staff started to notice thousands of summaries that "did not meet our guidelines," according to a spokesperson. The spokesperson wouldn't disclose how they noticed the issue, "for reasons of operational integrity."
To prevent future mass retractions, IEEE says it has formed a committee of staff and volunteer experts to serve as "gatekeepers" for conference materials and provide an additional level of quality control.
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