Do men commit more scientific misconduct than women? Evidence from retracted articles

Abstract

The gender disparity in scientific research has sparked extensive discussion, yet there is currently no consensus on the prevalence of scientific misconduct across genders. This study investigates this issue by collecting 5,256 retracted articles with the gender of their first authors based on the Web of Science and Retraction Watch databases. Considering the overall research productivity of both genders, our results demonstrate that male researchers generally exhibit higher retraction rates than their female counterparts in all disciplines. Female researchers retract slightly more due to falsification, while male researchers tend to retract more due to ethical issues, plagiarism, and authorship issues. In most countries with high numbers of retractions, male researchers exhibit higher retraction rates, with Iran being particularly severe. From the perspective of gender disparity, this study emphasizes the importance of addressing scientific misconduct and its underlying causes, to create a climate of accountability in the scientific community.

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