Top 10 most highly cited retracted papers

Ever curious which retracted papers have been most cited by other scientists? Below, we present the list of the 10 most highly cited retractions as of  October 26, 2023. Readers will see some familiar entries, such as the infamous Lancet paper by Andrew Wakefield that originally suggested a link between autism and childhood vaccines. You’ll note that several papers — including the #4 most cited paper — received more citations after they were retracted, which research has shown is an ongoing problem.

Article Year of retraction Citing Articles before retraction Citing Articles   after retraction Total cites (journals indexed by Web of Science)
1. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. N ENGL J MED; APR 2013.  Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvado J, Covas MI, Corella, D, Aros F, Gomez-Gracia E, Ruiz-Gutiérrez V, Fiol M, Lapetra J, Lamuela-Raventos RM, Serra-Majem L, Pinto X, Basora J, Munoz MA, Sorli JV, Martinez JA, Martinez-Gonzalez MA, et al., for the PREDIMED Study Investigators 2018 1656 824 2480
2. Predictive Validity of a Medication Adherence Measure in an Outpatient Setting. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. May 2, 2008.   Donald E. Morisky, Alfonso Ang, Marie Krousel-Wood, Harry J. Ward 2023 1904 16 1920
3. MicroRNA signatures of tumor-derived exosomes as diagnostic biomarkers of ovarian cancer. Gynecologic Oncology. June 25, 2008.   Douglas D. Taylor, Cicek Gercel-Taylor 2023 1862 11 1873
4. Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. LANCET; FEB 28 1998.  Wakefield AJ, Murch SH, Anthony A, Linnell J, Casson DM, Malik M, Berelowitz M, Dhillon AP, Thomson MA, Harvey P, Valentine A, Davies SE, Walker-Smith JA 2010 710 940 1650
5. Visfatin: A protein secreted by visceral fat that mimics the effects of insulin. SCIENCE; JAN 2005.  Fukuhara A, Matsuda M, Nishizawa M, Segawa K, Tanaka M, Kishimoto K, Matsuki Y, Murakami M, Ichisaka T, Murakami H, Watanabe E, Takagi T, Akiyoshi M, Ohtsubo T, Kihara S, Yamashita S, Makishima M, Funahashi T, Yamanaka S, Hiramatsu R, Matsuzawa Y, Shimomura I. 2007 232 1273 1505
6. An enhanced transient expression system in plants based on suppression of gene silencing by the p19 protein of tomato bushy stunt virus. PLANT J; MAR 2003.  Voinnet O, Rivas S, Mestre P, Baulcombe D. 2015 895 450 1345
7. Lysyl oxidase is essential for hypoxia-induced metastasis. NATURE; APR 2006.  Erler JT, Bennewith KL, Nicolau M, Dornhöfer N, Kong C, Le QT, Chi JT, Jeffrey SS, Giaccia AJ. 2020 976 123 1099
8. TREEFINDER: a powerful graphical analysis environment for molecular phylogenetics. BMC EVOL BIOL; JUN 2004.  Jobb G, von Haeseler A, Strimmer K. 2015 835 173 1008
9. Cardiac stem cells in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy (SCIPIO): initial results of a randomised phase 1 trial. LANCET, NOV 2011.  Bolli R, Chugh AR, D’Amario D, Loughran JH, Stoddard MF, Ikram S, Beache GM, Wagner SG, Leri A, Hosoda T, Sanada F, Elmore JB, Goichberg P, Cappetta D, Solankhi NK, Fahsah I, Rokosh DG, Slaughter MS, Kajstura J, Anversa P. 2019 918 89 1007
10. Purification and ex vivo expansion of postnatal human marrow mesodermal progenitor cells. BLOOD; NOV 2001.   Reyes M, Lund T, Lenvik T, Aguiar D, Koodie L, Verfaillie CM. 2009 596 329 925

Note: To obtain the number of citations before and after a retraction was issued, we relied  on the “Citation index” portion of  Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science (WoS), which only adds up the number of citations from journals indexed by the WoS Core Collection. Therefore, the  citation count using just those two values can be lower than the total citation count for each article listed by WoS. Those eagle-eyed readers may notice that the column headings have been changed slightly; this was to better reflect the criteria causing the discrepancy in total counts.