Retracted Publications in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery: What Mistakes Are Being Made?

Objectives: Retraction of publications is critical to maintaining scientific integrity, yet there is a lack of research on its occurrence in Otolaryngology. This study investigates characteristics, trends, and reasons for retraction of publications in otolaryngology journals. Study Design: Bibliometric analysis. Setting: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science. Methods: A PubMed search for publications retracted during 1990 to 2022 from the top 60 journals with the subject "Otorhinolaryngology" using Scopus' CiteScore was performed. Publications were excluded if they were not in English, had missing information or did not have available abstracts or full-text. Publication and retraction dates, journal, country of origin, citation counts, journal impact factor (JIF), topic, and reason for retraction were recorded. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to identify potential associations in the data. Results: Fifty-three publications were included. The 2020s had the highest number of retractions per year (4.33), with publications being retracted on average, 35 months after initial publication. The most common retracted topic and country of origin were head and neck (26.4%) and China (17.0%), respectively. Most publications were retracted because of plagiarism or duplicate publication (52.8%). Mean citation count was 6.92 ± 8.32 and mean JIF was 2.80 ± 1.35. Citation count was positively associated with months until retraction (r = .432, P = .001). There was no significant correlation between months to retraction and JIF (r = .022, P = .878). Conclusion: The most cited reasons for retraction were plagiarism and duplicate publication. An understanding of the reasons for retraction can better position journals to enforce more meticulous review standards and reduce such publications from being published. Level of Evidence: Level 4.

Injectable Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels for Tissue Writing and Embryonic Stem Cell Culture.

The fabrication of extracellular matrix-mimic hydrogels that can nurture and direct differentiation of embryonic stem cells is an important target for pattern-printed tissue replacement. Another desirable feature for such materials is their ability to be injected and recover their rheological features post-injection, allowing for facile non-invasive implantation. In this report, we demonstrate the ability of a self-assembling peptide hydrogel to support the culture of embryonic stem cells with the potential to direct differentiation. We also show that we can write a functional tissue replacement with a predetermined pattern using our formulation. Our results may lead to in vivo replacement of diseased tissue with a spatially resolved pattern of a regenerative hydrogel.