{"id":47892,"date":"2020-06-29T11:15:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T10:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=47892"},"modified":"2020-09-25T00:07:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T23:07:30","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-retractions-withdrawals-and-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/06\/29\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-retractions-withdrawals-and-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Retractions, withdrawals, and archives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/06\/19\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-withdrawn\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I drew a distinction between publications that had been retracted after publication and those that had been withdrawn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the two words literally mean \u201cdrawn back\u201d one should not be seduced by the etymological fallacy\u2014believing that a word always means today what its etymology suggests it should. I suggested that in relation to scientific publications the two words have different implications: that \u201cretracted\u201d implies that the work is still available for consultation, i.e. is archived, whereas \u201cwithdrawn\u201d implies that it has disappeared. However, others have reminded me that works that are labelled \u201cretracted\u201d may not be archived, and it is conversely true that works that are labelled \u201cwithdrawn\u201d may remain available.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I learnt from an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/retractionwatch.com\/2020\/06\/23\/a-wiley-journal-makes-another-article-disappear\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Retraction Watch, the publishers Wiley have a \u201cPolicy for Handling Retractions, Withdrawals, and Expressions of Concern\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/authorservices.wiley.com\/ethics-guidelines\/retractions-and-expressions-of-concern.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). They don\u2019t clearly define \u201cwithdrawal\u201d but they imply that it includes \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">deletion of the Version of Record\u201d, which, they say \u201cis rare\u201d. However, they will consider deletion in \u201climited circumstances\u201d, which they outline. Other publishers are not always so specific.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is all confusing. It confused me when I noticed that a preprint that had been deposited in medRxiv was later marked <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2020.05.05.20088757v2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">withdrawn<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I assumed that it was no longer available, but I then learnt that it was, and, as of today, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2020.05.05.20088757v1?versioned=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">still is<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I searched medRxiv for the article by the first author\u2019s name; the withdrawal notice appeared. But where was the original? I eventually found it by clicking on a sentence near the foot of the page: \u201cView comments on earlier versions of this paper\u201d. It can also be found under \u201cInfo\/history\u201d. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/about\/FAQ\">FAQs<\/a> on medRxiv explain this if you search through them, but if a paper has been retracted, shouldn\u2019t the original version be clearly and prominently signposted upfront?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One might look to agree uniform definitions of \u201cretracted\u201d and \u201cwithdrawn\u201d. But in conversation with others who have thought about the problem, I have been persuaded that this can lead to ambiguity and that a simpler way is needed\u2014to use one term only: \u201cretracted\u201d and \u201cretraction\u201d. And to withdraw the words \u201cwithdrawn\u201d and \u201cwithdrawal\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">COPE, the Committee on Public Ethics published excellent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2802086\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">guidance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 2009 about retractions. The guidance is too comprehensive for brief summary here. It describes the purpose of retraction, the form it should take, matters to do with notices of retraction, who should issue the retraction, when it should happen, and other related matters. It also contains the following sentence: \u201cRetracted articles should not be removed from printed copies of the journal \u2026 nor from electronic archives but their retracted status should be indicated as clearly as possible.\u201d The word \u201cwithdrawn\u201d does not appear in the guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">COPE\u2019s latest <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/publicationethics.org\/files\/retraction-guidelines.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">guidance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is not as explicit. The word \u201cwithdrawn\u201d does not appear, but neither does \u201carchive\u201d. Nor is there explicit advice not to remove the original material, although they do say that \u201cIn extremely limited cases it may be necessary to remove an article from online publication&#8230;\u201d, implying that generally one would not. But, later on, under the heading \u201cRepublishing retracted content\u201d, it says that when an author wants to republish some of the retracted work, \u201cthe original article should not be completely removed or &#8216;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">replaced&#8217;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but should be retained and linked to\u201d [italics in the original], implying that it might otherwise have been removed. More confusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a stream of eight <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hmkyale\/status\/1275802599036510218\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">tweets<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Harlan Krumholz has written that \u201cRetraction is not a thing @medrxivpreprint. Only withdrawal. Retraction conveys the sense that we approved it in the first place, which is not the case for #preprint. We screened it, but did not review it or endorse it.\u201d This seems to me an illogical distinction. Something posted on medRxiv has been published [\u201cmade generally accessible or available for acceptance or use (a work of art, information, etc.); presented to or before the public\u201d; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OED<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">]. And if something has been published, it can properly be described as having been retracted; that it did not originally have the imprimatur of medRxiv is irrelevant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ars Poetica<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, (lines 388\u201390) Horace writes \u201c\u2026 nonumque prematur in annum, Membranis intus positis, delere licebit, Quod non edideris; nescit vox missa reverti\u201d: \u201clock up your parchment until the ninth year and destroy it if you will; unpublished it needs no retraction\u201d. This also reflects what he wrote in one of his epistles: \u201cEt semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum\u201d: \u201cAnd once sent out a word takes wing and cannot be recalled.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While in prison, awaiting execution, Mary Stuart embroidered on her cloth of estate the words &#8220;En ma Fin g\u00eet mon Commencement&#8221;, words that expressed her belief in eternal life after death. T S Eliot quoted these words in translation at the end of his poem \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/27537497?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">East Coker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d, but inverted them at the start: \u201cIn my beginning is my end.\u201d An archive records what came at the beginning (\u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u03ae, see Figure 1), without which we have an incomplete picture of the end.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe that ambiguity could be avoided by always using the word \u201cretracted\u201d, and avoiding the word \u201cwithdrawn\u201d. And that retracted publications should be archived. If a retracted publication is, exceptionally, not archived, the reasons should be clearly explained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-47893\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/aronson_29june.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"715\" height=\"717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/aronson_29june.png 715w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/aronson_29june-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/aronson_29june-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/aronson_29june-640x642.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Acknowledgement:<\/strong> I am grateful for helpful discussions with Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch, although he and his colleagues may not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in this column.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford&#8217;s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None declared.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"border: 1px solid black\">\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><b>This week&#8217;s interesting integer: 280<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Base connections<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb 280 is an odious number in base 2, since it contains an odd number of ones (3) = 100011000; and since that number is also prime it is a pernicious number in base 2.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a palindrome in base 3 = 10011001<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a plaindrome in bases 6, 11 , 15, and 16 (1144, 235, 131, and 118) and a nialpdrome in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">bases 5, 7, and 8 (2110, 550, and 430).<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a zygodrome in base 6 = 1144, i.e. it has strings of repeated digits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 The sum of its digits is 10 of which 280 is a multiple; such numbers are called Harshad numbers, which were first described by the Indian mathematician D R Kaprekar. Harshad is a Sanskrit word meaning a giver of joy. An alternative name for such numbers is a Niven number after Ivan M Niven. A special subset of such numbers contains those that end in the same number as the sum of the digits. For example, the digit sum of 3616 is 16, which is both a divisor of the number and ends it; these numbers are called harshadmorphic numbers. 280 is actually a super-Niven number, because it is also divisible by 2 and 8.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 280 is a happy number in base 10; the sum of the squares of its digits is 68, which you will find on the diagram of all the happy numbers up to 262, with an explanation, at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/02\/21\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-anamnesis\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interesting integer 262<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 273 is one of Leonhard Euler&#8217;s idoneal numbers (see <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/05\/07\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-chains-of-exponentials\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interesting integer 273<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 280 is the 10th triple factorial number 10!!! Take any number and multiply it by every third number less than it; 10 x 7 x 4 x 1 = 280; this comes from extending the normal factorial function, thus:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">n! = n(n-1)(n-2) &#8230;<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">n!! = n(n-2)(n-4) &#8230;<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">n!!! = n(n-3)(n-6) &#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 Sums and differences:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">280 is the sum of two cubes = 4<sup>3<\/sup> + 6<sup>3<\/sup><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">280 is the sum of seven consecutive squares from 3 to 9<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is the sum of six consecutive primes: 37 + 41 + 43 + 47 + 53 + 59<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is the sum of five consecutive natural numbers = 54 + 55 + 56 + 57 + 58<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u25cb<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">280 is the difference between two squares = 71<sup>2<\/sup> \u2013 69<sup>2<\/sup> = 37<sup>2<\/sup> &#8211; 33<sup>2<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2022 280 is an octagonal number; the formula for octagonal numbers is n(3n-2), so 280 is the 10<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> such number.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48656\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1927\" height=\"1927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers.png 1927w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-1536x1536.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/06\/280.-Octagonal-numbers-640x640.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1927px) 100vw, 1927px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I drew a distinction between publications that had been retracted after publication and those that had been withdrawn. Although the two words literally mean \u201cdrawn back\u201d one should [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/06\/29\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-retractions-withdrawals-and-archives\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5762],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-aronsons-words"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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