A citation-based framework that quantifies the harm caused by retracted papers and how it propagates, applied to a refined dataset of ~210 million publications across 23 disciplines. It uncovers an 'attention escape' mechanism: retracted papers postpone significant harm, disproportionately affect papers that cite them indirectly, and inflict greater harm on citations appearing in journals with impact factor below 10 -- letting the harm accumulate outside the attention of authors and publishers and thus evade correction. The findings argue for intervention strategies that target indirect and low-visibility citation paths.
This paper proposes a citation-based quantitative framework to measure the harm caused by retracted research papers and the dynamics of how that harm propagates, using a refined dataset of about 210 …