Top most highly cited retracted papers

5 days ago 3

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 May 23, 2025. 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 some papers — including the #8 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. Pluripotency of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult. Nature. June 20, 2002. Y Jiang, BN Jahagirdar, RL Reinhardt, RE Schwartz, CD Keene, XR Ortiz-Gonzalez, M Reyes, T Lenvik, T Lund, M Blackstad, J Du, S Aldrich, A Lisberg, WC Low, DA Largaespada, CM Verfaillie 2024 4491 21 4512 2. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. March 20, 2020. P Gautret, JC Lagier, P Parola, VT Hoang, L Meddeb, M Mailhe, B Doudier, J Courjon, V Giordanengo, VE Vieira, HT Dupont, S Honoré, P Colson, E Chabrière, B La Scola , JM Rolain, P Brouqui, D Raoult 2024 3177 12 3189 3. 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study. Lancet. January 8, 2021. C Huang, L Huang, Y Wang, X Li, L Ren, X Gu, L Kang, L Guo, M Liu, X Zhou, J Luo, Z Huang, S Tu, Y Zhao, L Chen, D Xu, Y Li, C Li, L Peng, Y Li, W Xie, D Cui, L Shang, G Fan, J Xu, G Wang, Y Wang, J Zhong, C Wang, J Wang, D Zhang, B Cao 2023 2272 757 3029 4. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. New England Journal of Medicine. April 4, 2013. R Estruch, E Ros, J Salas-Salvadó, M-I Covas, D Corella, F Arós, E Gómez-Gracia, V Ruiz-Gutiérrez, M Fiol, J Lapetra, RM Lamuela-Raventos, L Serra-Majem, X Pintó, J Basora, MA Muñoz, JV Sorlí, JA Martínez, MA Martínez-González, for the PREDIMED Study Investigators 2018 1787 884 2671 5. A specific amyloid-β protein assembly in the brain impairs memory. Nature. March 16, 2008. S Lesné, MT Koh, L Kotilinek, R Kayed, CG Glabe, A Yang, M Gallagher, KH Ashe 2024 2359 25 2384 6. Predictive Validity of a Medication Adherence Measure in an Outpatient Setting. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. May 2, 2008. DE Morisky, A Ang, M Krousel-Wood, HJ Ward 2023 1932 213 2145 7. MicroRNA signatures of tumor-derived exosomes as diagnostic biomarkers of ovarian cancer. Gynecologic Oncology. June 25, 2008. DD Taylor, C Gercel-Taylor 2023 1868 72 1940 8. Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. Lancet. February 28, 1998. AJ Wakefield, SH Murch, A Anthony, J Linnell, DM Casson, M Malik, M Berelowitz, AP Dhillon, MA Thomson, P Harvey, A Valentine, SE Davies, JA Walker-Smith. 2010 734 1007 1741 9. Recent progress in processing and properties of ZnO. Progress in Materials Science. May 28, 2004. SJ Pearton, DP Norton, K Ip, YW Heo, T Steiner 2020 1550 86 1636 10. Visfatin: A protein secreted by visceral fat that mimics the effects of insulin. Science. January 21, 2005. A Fukuhara, M Matsuda, M Nishizawa, K Segawa, M Tanaka, K Kishimoto, Y Matsuki, M Murakami, T Ichisaka, H Murakami, E Watanabe, T Takagi, M Akiyoshi, T Ohtsubo, S Kihara, S Yamashita, M Makishima, T Funahashi, S Yamanaka, R Hiramatsu, Y Matsuzawa, I Shimomura 2007 319 1245 1564

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.

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