Keep calm and be transparent: advice from scientists who retracted their papers

## Summary
Nature reached out to scientists who have openly retracted their studies, and asked about their experiences and lessons learnt. “I completely understand why people are scared about it,” but correcting the scientific literature is important, says Ivan Oransky, co-founder of media organization Retraction Watch, which maintains the world’s most comprehensive database of scientific retractions. These universities have the most retracted scientific articles Susanne Stoll, then a PhD student at University College London (UCL), was the first to let Haas know that there might be a problem with a paper he had worked on. Article PubMed Google Scholar Download references Reprints and permissions Related Articles These universities have the most retracted scientific articles India to penalize universities with too many retractions Controversial ‘arsenic life’ paper retracted after 15 years — but authors fight back Retractions caused by honest mistakes are extremely stressful, say researchers Biomedical paper retractions have quadrupled in 20 years — why? Subjects Publishing Scientific community Authorship Latest on: Publishing Scientific community Authorship The ethical risks of open-access agreements being used for authorship leverage Correspondence 10 MAR 26 What a viral TikTok taught me about personal storytelling in science Career Column 06 MAR 26 Under pressure: the reality of Mexico’s research system Spotlight 04 MAR 26 The ethical risks of open-access agreements being used for authorship leverage Correspondence 10 MAR 26 Privilege, power and vulnerability in science: precarious funding can prompt unethical ties Correspondence 10 MAR 26 How data can help to guide NIH funding policy Comment 10 MAR 26 The Contributor Role Taxonomy tool must serve to record extent of authorship Correspondence 24 FEB 26 AI research deluge: why one conference is asking authors to rank their own papers Nature Index 04 FEB 26 Is the journal legitimate?

## Article Content
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Some researchers who retract their papers do so after others in the scientific community raise red flags to them about their work.
Credit: EyeEm/Getty
Early last month, evolutionary biologist Nicole King and postdoctoral fellow Jacob Steenwyk retracted their paper in the journal
Science
1
. King was shaken when she realized that the paper — which attempted to use a new data-analysis approach to work out
which animal lineages were the first to emerge
on Earth — had serious technical errors. But the decision was still clear: “If you know you made a mistake, you’ve got to reverse it,” she says.
Retractions caused by honest mistakes are extremely stressful, say researchers
Retractions, which have long been associated with misconduct or poor scientific practice, can carry a lot of stigma. As of a decade ago, only about 22% of retractions resulted from authors self-reporting errors
2
, rather than other scientists raising concerns to journals. Authors whose papers are retracted often stop publishing, especially if the retractions are well publicized
3
.
So King, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, was pleasantly surprised to see some scientists celebrating her decision online. “One reason for loving science is how graciously we sometimes deal with errors,”
said a bioinformatics researcher
on the social-media platform Bluesky
.
Research has shown that when authors self-retract because of honest mistakes, their earlier work continues to be cited
2
. These data, along with anecdotes such as King’s story, suggest that attitudes about retractions might eventually shift.
Nature
reached out to scientists who have openly retracted their studies, and asked about their experiences and lessons learnt.
“I completely understand why people are scared about it,” but correcting the scientific literature is important, says Ivan Oransky, co-founder of media organization Retraction Watch, which maintains the world’s most comprehensive database of scientific retractions.
Oransky hopes to incentivize researchers with the Ctrl-Z Award — a reference to the ‘undo’ command on a keyboard —
launched this week
by the Center for Scientific Integrity, Retraction Watch’s parent organization in New York City. Each year, the prize, worth US$2,500, will go to early-career and senior researchers “who discover substantial errors in their published work and take meaningful steps to correct the scientific record”, despite the professional risks.
Advancing science
Benjamin de Haas, now a neuroscientist at Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, navigated a retraction early in his career by reminding himself that mistakes happen, and fixing them is an important part of science.
These universities have the most retracted scientific articles
Susanne Stoll, then a PhD student at University College London (UCL), was the first to let Haas know that there might be a problem with a paper he had worked on. She joined the laboratory of one of Haas’s co-authors and was examining some of Haas’s old work. The research found that, when people concentrate on a detailed object, the brain’s vision centre blurs out the object’s surroundings — leading to a kind of ‘tunnel vision’
4
.
Stoll suspected that the data analysis was flawed and led to an incorrect conclusion. So, along with her supervisor, she e-mailed Haas.
When Haas saw the e-mail, he dug up his old data and, after some frantic analysis, realized that Stoll was right. “That was a real ‘oh shit’ moment,” Haas says.
Even so, he didn’t hesitate to contact the journal
Current Biology
and ask for a retraction. Although he had just launched his own lab and was worried about his career, Haas wanted to be as transparent as possible, to make it clear that there was no misconduct.
Now, looking back on that time six years ago, he wishes he could tell himself to remain calm: “You’ll end up with tenure anyway.”
Not pointing fingers
What helped Haas was the reaction of his former PhD adviser, Geraint Rees, now a vice-provost at UCL. When it became clear that the paper needed to be retracted, Rees offered Haas support, rather than expressing blame or disappointment, Haas says. Working together on the retraction made it less intimidating.
The way in which Stoll initially approached him was also essential, Haas says. She was kind and respectful, and they worked together to understand the issue. “We had a common goal,” he adds.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00763-x
References
Steenwyk, J. L. & King, N.
Science
390
, 751–756 (2025); retraction
Science
391
, 564 (2026).
Article
PubMed
Google Scholar
Lu, S. F., Jin, G. Z., Uzzi, B. & Jones,

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Nature reached out to scientists who have openly retracted their studies, and asked about their experiences and lessons learnt. “I completely understand why people are scared about it,” but correcting the scientific literature is important, says Ivan Oransky, co-founder of media organization Retraction Watch, which maintains the world’s most comprehensive database of scientific retractions.
- Advancing science Benjamin de Haas, now a neuroscientist at Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, navigated a retraction early in his career by reminding himself that mistakes happen, and fixing them is an important part of science.

### Areas for Consideration
- These universities have the most retracted scientific articles Susanne Stoll, then a PhD student at University College London (UCL), was the first to let Haas know that there might be a problem with a paper he had worked on.
- Stoll suspected that the data analysis was flawed and led to an incorrect conclusion.
- She was kind and respectful, and they worked together to understand the issue. “We had a common goal,” he adds.

### Implications
- These data, along with anecdotes such as King’s story, suggest that attitudes about retractions might eventually shift.
- Each year, the prize, worth US$2,500, will go to early-career and senior researchers “who discover substantial errors in their published work and take meaningful steps to correct the scientific record”, despite the professional risks.
- These universities have the most retracted scientific articles Susanne Stoll, then a PhD student at University College London (UCL), was the first to let Haas know that there might be a problem with a paper he had worked on.
- Now, looking back on that time six years ago, he wishes he could tell himself to remain calm: “You’ll end up with tenure anyway.” Not pointing fingers What helped Haas was the reaction of his former PhD adviser, Geraint Rees, now a vice-provost at UCL.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers haas, scientific, university topics. Notable strengths include discussion of haas. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1259.