Item retracted!

I got this message today. https://imgur.com/a/4sdEqFr

There is no way I have plagiarised, and even if I did Zotero would not be able to identify it because I am writing in Greek! Any help, please?
  • It's not saying you did anything wrong. It's the article you're referencing that was retracted.

    https://www.zotero.org/blog/retracted-item-notifications/
  • If you click the "Retraction Notice" link, do you end up on a webpage describing one of your articles, or an article by somebody else?
  • edited June 18, 2019
    So it is the article authors who have plagiarised, right? Is it still possible to use this article in case I don't find the original, plagiarised work?

    Retraction notice gets me here https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.249884
  • No, you should not cite a retracted article.
  • I won't, but at the moment I am working on a draft and I just want it to be there so that I can simply have the info. When I polish off my work (actually it is my undergraduate final paper), I will look it up.
    For the time being I am worried if there is any possibility to get a bug because of this retracted paper.
  • edited June 18, 2019
    Since that DOI link doesn't seem to work, that would be

    Retraction: Religion and mental health. Indian J Psychiatry [serial online] 2019 [cited 2019 Jun 18];61, Suppl S3:632. Available from: http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2019/61/9/632/249884
  • I am sorry, I am not sure I understand this. Do you mean that it should be cited the way you show me? I though that it shouldn't be cited at all.
  • For the time being I am worried if there is any possibility to get a bug because of this retracted paper.
    I don't know what you mean by "get a bug" -- if you mean in the technical sense of a software bug, then absolutely no. Zotero just attaches a warning, it won't break anything.

    The reason Zotero implemented the feature is that it is considered bad science to cite retracted work, so you really shouldn't, but as long as this is just for a draft, no one is there to judge you... I would discourage handing in a thesis with that reference, though.
  • Yes, I was talking about the technical side of it. I won't include this reference, thank all of you for your advice!
  • The reference I gave is also for the retraction of the article, not to the article itself.

    There can be valid reasons to cite a retracted article (e.g. to specifically point out it's been retracted and that its findings can no longer be trusted). But if you do, it's important to point out the known problems with the article and the fact it's been officially retracted.
  • Good to know that, @Rintze! So, do I add it in the bibliography the way you presented it? And where? Along with the other references?
  • If you want to cite the article, you can cite it along with the retraction.

    In case of plagiarism, though, you're probably better off just referencing the original:

    Moreira-Almeida, Alexander, Lotufo Neto, Francisco, & Koenig, Harold G. (2006). Religiousness and mental health: a review. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 28(3), 242-250. Epub August 10, 2006. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-44462006005000006
  • Wow! How did you manage to track down the original article?! You saved me lots of work!!
  • I would also *strongly* recommend against keeping retracted articles as "placeholders". When you're overwhelmed (and you're going to be at the end), these are the things that will slip through. If you need a placeholder, I'd recommend adding a first author called something like "PAPER RETRACTED" and adding something like "PAPER RETRACTED" to the start of the title to at least give yourself a fighting chance to spot it before handing it in.
  • (Zotero will also warn you whenever you update a document with a retracted citation, unless you tell it not to warn you again for that item.)
  • I've checked the box to not be notified again, but the message keeps popping up.
  • Which message? The retraction info will continue to appear in the right-hand pane when you click on the item, and there's no way to disable that short of disabling retraction detection altogether, which I'd strongly discourage you from doing.

    If you check "Don’t warn me about this citation again" when prompted about an existing citation in your document, you shouldn't get that warning again for that citation.
  • I'm talking about the "don't warn me again" message
  • What word processor? Can you reproduce it in a new document? If so, can you provide exact minimal steps to reproduce getting the warning a second time after checking that box?
  • It's MS word 2013. It won't be reproduced in the new document, but I didn't get the warning message in the same format either (there was a message saying the paper has been retracted and if I am sure I want to use it, but no box to check in order not to get this message again).
  • Ah, yeah, sorry, if you insert a citation that's already retracted, you'll get a different warning.

    We'll see if we can reproduce this. The checkbox was working for me last time I checked.
  • This morning it worked for me too. Seems I had to restart zotero to get it fixed.
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