Retraction Statement

The formal notice a journal or publisher issues to retract a published article — a standalone document, not the article itself, that identifies the article, states who initiated the retraction and why, and is bidirectionally linked to the retracted paper. A publication counts as a retraction statement only when the journal publishes it under its own editorial authority and explicitly labels it as a retraction, distinct from a correction, erratum, or expression of concern.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 23 Jul 2026

Worked examples

Is an instance

A one-paragraph notice published on a journal's website stating that a materials-science article is retracted because the reported data could not be reconstructed from the authors' raw files, naming the corresponding author as having agreed to the retraction, and linked from the original article's abstract page in both directions.

A retraction statement — also called a retraction notice — is the formal document a journal or publisher issues to withdraw a published article from the scientific record. It is a distinct publication from the article itself: the original paper is not deleted, it remains accessible but is clearly marked “RETRACTED,” and the statement is linked to it in both directions. Under COPE’s Retraction Guidelines (v2, November 2019), a compliant statement identifies the retracted article, states who is retracting it and why, and is published promptly and made freely accessible.

What makes a document a retraction statement

A publication operationally qualifies as a retraction statement when it:

Is issued by the journal or publisher under its own editorial authority — an author cannot unilaterally retract a paper simply by posting a notice elsewhere.
Explicitly labels itself as a retraction in its heading, distinguishing it from a correction, erratum, or expression of concern.
Cites the retracted article’s full bibliographic details — title, author list, journal, volume/issue, and DOI.
States who initiated the retraction (the author(s), the editor, or the publisher) and whether all authors agreed to it.
Gives a substantive reason, specific enough to distinguish honest error from research misconduct.
Is bidirectionally linked to the retracted article, which stays online but is unmistakably watermarked in every format the publisher distributes.

For the full set of drafting requirements and a worked example, see How to Write a Retraction Statement; for the editorial process that precedes one being published, see How a Retraction Actually Happens: The Editorial Process.

Distinct from a correction, erratum, or corrigendum

A retraction statement is not interchangeable with a correction or corrigendum. A correction fixes an error that doesn’t undermine the paper’s overall conclusions — a mislabeled axis, a misspelled author name — and the article stands, corrected. A retraction statement accompanies the full withdrawal of the paper’s findings, issued when the error or misconduct is judged to invalidate the conclusions entirely. Using a correction notice for an issue serious enough to warrant retraction, or retracting a paper over an issue that doesn’t actually undermine its validity, is itself considered a departure from COPE’s guidance.

It’s also distinct from an expression of concern, which flags an unresolved issue while an investigation is still underway, and from redaction, which removes specific content from a document without withdrawing the document itself — see Retraction vs. Redaction. And the statement is the notice document itself, not the broader editorial outcome it announces — see Retraction for that wider concept.

Where retraction statements are published and indexed

A retraction statement is published by the journal, usually attached to or replacing the original article’s abstract/landing page, and is then picked up by the same abstracting and indexing databases that indexed the original paper. The Retraction Watch Database, maintained by The Center for Scientific Integrity, aggregates retraction statements across journals and publishers and is the primary public index for tracking them.

References

COPE Retraction Guidelines, v2 (November 2019)
Retraction Watch Database (ongoing)

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Retraction Statement"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/retraction-statement" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/retraction-statement",
  "name": "Retraction Statement",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/retraction-statement",
  "description": "The formal notice a journal or publisher issues to retract a published article — a standalone document, not the article itself, that identifies the article, states who initiated the retraction and why, and is bidirectionally linked to the retracted paper. A publication counts as a retraction statement only when the journal publishes it under its own editorial authority and explicitly labels it as a retraction, distinct from a correction, erratum, or expression of concern.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/publishing#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/retraction-statement",
  "sameAs": [
    "retraction notice"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-23T06:12:19",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}