According to a new article in Science Editor, women authors of scientific papers are significantly less likely than their male peers to have their research retracted. Furthermore, when women’s papers are retracted, the most common reason is for errors committed by the editor or publisher — something entirely outside of women authors’ responsibility.
In an analysis of nearly 65,000 articles from the RetractionWatch database published between January 1971 and June 2025, the study found 60.9 percent of all retracted articles had men listed as both the first and last author. Women accounted for 26.4 percent of first authors and 23.7 percent of last authors for retracted articles — far below their estimated 30 to 40 percent share of first authors and 25 to 30 percent share of last authors for academic papers overall.
Among women-authored papers that are retracted, the reason for retraction varies significantly. However, no retraction cause included in the study had a higher representation of women authors than women’s overall representation in academic authorship. The lowest representation of women was found for ethical and legal issues for both first authors (16.6 percent) and last authors (19.4 percent). For first authors, women’s representation among retraction reasons was highest for errors by editors or publishers (33.8 percent) and errors by authors (30.1 percent). For last authors, women’s representation was highest for plagiarism (28.9 percent), followed by errors from editors or publishers (26.1 percent).
“Women’s underrepresentation is particularly marked for retractions due to fraud and misconduct and ethical concerns,” the authors write. “This suggests that gender equality in academia could enhance research integrity within the scientific community in general and, hence, reduce the adverse impact that retractions have on population health and trust in science.”