(1 Aug 2025) India’s national university ranking will start penalizing institutions if a sizeable number of papers published by their researchers are retracted — a first for an institutional ranking system. The move is an attempt by the government to address the country’s growing number of retractions due to misconduct.
Many retractions correct honest mistakes in the literature, but others arise because of misconduct. India has had more papers retracted than any country apart from China and the United States, according to an analysis of the public database maintained by Retraction Watch of retractions over the past three decades.
But whereas less than 1 paper is retracted for every 1,000 papers published in the United States, more than 3 are retracted for every 1,000 published in China, and the figure is 2 per 1,000 in India. The majority in India and China are withdrawn because of misconduct or research-integrity concerns.
Some researchers have welcomed the government’s decision, calling it a first step in acknowledging and attempting to tackle the problem. But others warn that retractions are a way for science to self-correct and should not be penalized.
The policy’s effectiveness will depend on how exactly institutional retractions are measured and penalized — details that will be revealed only when the latest ranking results are announced, in a couple of weeks.
Nature has the article in full here.
