Retracted Covid-19 papers and the levels of ‘citation pollution’: A preliminary analysis and directions for further research - ANNEXUS

These datasets inform the study titled "Retracted Covid-19 papers and the levels of ‘citation pollution’: A preliminary analysis and directions for further research". Our aims with this paper are as follows:1) By interrogating cases of papers citing the 33 retracted papers, specifically papers that review Covid-19 literature and/or case studies, we demonstrate the need for ongoing and more in-depth studies that focus on the phenomenon of citation pollution caused by weak or questionable scientific practices.2) We show that the “Covid-19 publication race” has potentially aggravated the distortion of published science on Covid-19.3) We highlight trends that could help understand how citation pollution may potentially escalate and consequently, how it may be mitigated.