I Cited a Retracted Paper: What to Do Now (Step-by-Step)

A paper you cited got retracted. Your reference list looked perfect yesterday — clean formatting, reliable sources — and now one source is no longer part of the valid scientific record. Here’s what actually happens and exactly how to handle it.

First, the important part: citing a paper that was later retracted is not misconduct. Researchers discover retractions all the time, and the scientific community expects you to catch them and correct course. What is an issue is failing to fix the citation once you know. This guide walks you through every scenario — from discovering a retraction while your paper is still in draft, to finding out months after your paper was already published — and gives you the exact steps for each one.

How Serious Is It? The Scenario Decision Matrix

The right response depends entirely on two things: where your paper is in the process and how important that source was to your argument. Use this decision matrix to find your situation and see what to do.

Scenario Decision Matrix: What to Do When You Find a Retracted Citation

Your Situation	How Central Was the Source?	What to Do
Paper not yet submitted	Peripheral (background context, general reference)	Replace or remove the citation. No formal process needed.
Paper not yet submitted	Central (data, method, or claim your argument depends on)	Replace with an alternative source. Re-examine whether your conclusion still holds.
Paper under review	Any level	Notify your supervisor or co-author immediately. If possible, submit a corrected reference list with your revision.
Paper published; citation peripheral	Background or historical context only	Contact the journal to request a reference list correction (corrigendum). Your conclusions stand.
Paper published; citation central	Core finding or method your work depends on	Contact the journal editor immediately. Expect a correction, expression of concern, or (rarely) retraction of your paper.
Systematic review or meta-analysis	Any retracted study included in pooled data	Stop and re-evaluate. Including retracted data in a pooled analysis has itself caused retractions of review articles.

This matrix consolidates guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and publisher retraction guidelines into a single reference. The CASRAI decision tree follows this exact logic and adds the same branching structure with identical outcomes.

Why This Happens: The Retraction Timeline You Need to Understand

Papers get retracted for many reasons: data fabrication, image manipulation, honest mistakes (mislabeled datasets, statistical errors), plagiarism, authorship disputes, or undisclosed conflicts of interest. The reason matters because it tells you whether the specific finding you cited is actually compromised.

Retraction Watch now tracks more than 65,000 retractions across all disciplines, and new retractions are added every week. The average paper is retracted about two and a half years after publication, though some sit in the literature for a decade before anyone catches the problem. This timeline is exactly why a source that was verified when you wrote your literature review three months ago can suddenly become invalid while your paper is still in revision.

A related issue is that retracted papers continue accumulating citations long after retraction. Studies have found that nearly a quarter of all citations to retracted genetics papers arrived after the retraction was published, and more than 30% of citations to retracted computer science papers came a year or more after retraction. The retraction notice exists, but most citing authors never see it — Google Scholar doesn’t reliably flag retracted papers, and copies hosted on institutional repositories or file-sharing sites frequently carry no retraction notice at all.

Step 1: Confirm the Retraction and Read the Notice

The first thing to do is verify the retraction and understand why the paper was withdrawn. Search the Retraction Watch Database for the paper title or DOI — this is the single most comprehensive public source for retraction records. You can also query CrossRef metadata through the paper’s DOI, which has included retraction status natively since September 2023.

Once you find the retraction, read the notice carefully. The reason for retraction determines whether your specific citation is actually affected:

• Data fabrication or image manipulation: The underlying data is unreliable. Any citation that relies on the paper’s findings should be replaced.
• Statistical error or honest mistake: Depending on what specific finding the retracted paper supported, your citation may or may not be compromised.
• Duplicate publication: The finding itself may still be valid even though this particular publication is duplicated.
• Authorship or ethical dispute: The paper’s conclusions stand, but the publication record is disputed.
• Editorial decision (e.g., methodology concerns): The findings are still considered valid by the journal.

A retraction for a contained, unrelated issue — say, a figure that was mislabeled — may not affect the specific point you cited at all. The retraction notice will tell you.

Step 2: Decide Whether the Retracted Source Affects Your Argument

Locate every place in your paper where you cited this source. For each instance, ask a specific question: does my argument rely on the finding this paper reported?

Three possible answers:

1. The paper is cited for background, history, or general context. The retraction rarely damages your argument. Keep the citation but mark it as retracted (see Step 3).
2. The paper is cited for a specific finding that supported a claim you made. If the retraction reason bears on that finding, you need to either find a replacement source or reframe the claim to fit evidence that still stands. A source that supports the same claim but was never retracted is the simplest fix.
3. The paper is cited for a methodological choice. If the method was validated in the retracted paper, you need a fresh source of validation. If the method was widely used before and after this paper, the retraction doesn’t undermine the methodology — only this particular paper’s authority for it.

This is where many students and early-career researchers face the hardest part: rewriting a paragraph or section that was built around evidence that no longer exists. The intellectual honesty move is not to silently swap the citation but to acknowledge the retraction, evaluate whether your claim still holds, and adjust accordingly.

How to Format a Retracted Citation (APA, MLA, Chicago)

If you keep the citation, you must clearly mark it as retracted so readers are not misled. The formatting rules vary slightly by style guide, but the principle is the same: the retraction must be visible in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry.

APA 7th Edition Format

Citing the retracted article itself (to discuss its contents, for example):

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article [Retracted]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/[DOI]

Citing the retraction notice itself (to discuss why the paper was withdrawn):

Editors of the Journal Name. (Year). Retraction: “Title of the retracted article.” Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/[DOI]

The APA Style manual provides an example using the well-known Diederik Stapel fraud case:

Joly, J. F., Stapel, D. A., & Lindenberg, S. M. (2008). Silence and table manners: When environments activate norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1047–1056. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167208318401 (Retraction published 2012, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(10), 1378)

In-text citation: (Joly et al., 2008)

Note the bracketed [Retracted] label immediately after the article title and the retraction notice details in parentheses at the end.

Other Style Guides

Thesisroom and COPE recommend a similar approach: prefix or append the word RETRACTED: to the citation, and include both the original DOI and the retraction notice DOI. In body text, add a clarifying note like “Author (2019, since retracted) reported that…” to make the retraction visible inline.

Chicago and Harvard generally follow the same logic: include a bracketed note or explicit mention of the retraction in the bibliography entry. If in doubt, check your target journal’s specific author guidelines — practice varies slightly across publishers.

COPE’s Official Position

The Committee on Publication Ethics states in its Retraction Guidelines:

Notices of retraction should link to the retracted article, clearly identify it with title and authors, and be published promptly. A citation to retracted content should be clearly flagged so that readers are not misled.

This applies to both published papers and student work — the standard of transparency is the same regardless of where the paper appears.

What If Your Paper Is Already Published?

This is the hardest scenario because you are no longer editing a draft — you are asking a journal to modify the published record. The correct response again depends on how load-bearing the retracted source was.

The retracted reference was peripheral

If the retracted paper was cited for general background, related work, or context — and removing it changes nothing about your data, methods, or conclusions — contact the journal’s editorial office (not just the submission portal) and request a correction to your reference list. Most journals handle this as a straightforward corrigendum: a short published notice correcting the reference, with no implication about the validity of your own findings. This is typically a routine editorial process that the journal handles without further investigation.

The retracted reference was central to your conclusions

If the retracted paper supplied data, a method, or a claim your own conclusions actually depend on, the situation is materially more serious. Contact the journal editor immediately. Depending on how central the dependency is, the editor may:

• Publish a correction if your conclusions are unaffected once the reference is removed or replaced.
• Issue an expression of concern while the implications are investigated — this flags that an investigation is underway but hasn’t yet concluded.
• Move toward retraction of your own paper in rare cases where your central conclusion cannot stand without the retracted source. This is not punitive; COPE’s guidelines and ICMJE’s recommendations treat this as a normal part of correcting the scholarly record.

Being the one who flags the issue — rather than waiting for a reviewer or editor to catch it — is treated as good-faith diligence. It reflects well on you professionally.

If your paper is already published and you discover the retraction later

This can happen because retractions are ongoing: a paper that was clean when you submitted it six months ago could be retracted while your paper was under review, or a source from a two-year-old review could be retracted after your paper was published. In any case where you discover a retracted citation in published work, contact the journal’s editorial office directly. The procedure is the same as above: peripheral → corrigendum request; central → formal investigation.

What NOT to Do

Action	Why It’s Wrong	What to Do Instead
Silently remove the reference without explanation	If the paper is published, you cannot silently edit it.
Even in a revision, readers should know the citation was retracted.	Replace with a note about the retraction, or if deleting, replace with an alternative source.
Assume the retracted paper’s findings are automatically invalid	Retractions range from minor procedural errors to serious misconduct. Read the notice.	Read the retraction notice and decide whether the specific finding you cited is affected.
Cite the retracted paper’s findings even with a caveat	ICMJE is explicit: you may reference a retracted article only to discuss the retraction itself, not to rely on withdrawn findings.	Replace the citation with a valid source, or if discussing the retraction, cite the retraction notice.
Wait for someone else to catch it	Journals increasingly check reference lists against retraction databases during peer review. A retracted citation can trigger revision requests or rejection.	Flag it proactively to your co-author, supervisor, or the journal editor.
Assume a reference manager means the paper is safe	Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley store references but do not re-verify them against retraction databases.	Run a final check against the Retraction Watch Database before submission.

How to Prevent This in Future Work

The best way to handle retractions is to catch them early, before they cause problems. Several strategies help:

Run a retraction check before every submission. The ICMJE recommends using PubMed’s retracted-publication filter combined with the Retraction Watch Database as a final pass before submitting a reference list. This catches sources that were verified when you wrote your literature review but retracted months later.

Use tools that flag retractions automatically. Zotero (version 5.0.67+) includes a native Retraction Watch integration that flags retracted items in your library and warns you when you cite one. Scholar Sidekick offers a free, no-signup retraction checker for individual papers. Reference checker services like Reference Checker can scan an entire reference list in one pass.

Re-check long-running projects before submission. A thesis, dissertation, or book manuscript can take years to finish — long enough for an early source to be retracted before you’re done. Build a retraction check into your final submission checklist, not just your initial literature review.

Common Mistakes Students Make

Here are the most common errors students make when dealing with retracted citations, based on patterns seen across academic writing centers and publisher guidance:

1. Assuming a retracted paper can be safely cited if you add a footnote. You cannot rely on a retracted paper’s findings — only its retraction notice — as evidence. A footnote does not satisfy this requirement.
2. Deleting the citation silently and hoping no one notices. Examiners and instructors spot-check bibliographies, especially in thesis work. A missing reference looks suspicious.
3. Citing a paper that was retracted for data fabrication “because the trend it identified is still widely accepted.” The trend might be valid, but you cannot use the fraudulent source to support it. Find a clean source.
4. Not reading the retraction notice. A correction leaves the paper’s conclusions intact; a full retraction for fabrication does not. The reason for retraction is the difference between a minor formatting fix and a serious integrity issue.
5. Treating a single retraction as a one-time event. If you’re doing thesis or dissertation work, run retraction checks regularly — at least once a year and again before final submission.

What This Means for Your Grade

For students, the consequences of citing a retracted paper generally fall into two categories:

Research quality penalty — This is the most common outcome. An instructor who checks sources closely may flag the reference as a research-quality issue and deduct points for failing to verify source reliability. In high-stakes assignments like a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, discovering a retracted citation usually means you must rewrite the section and find alternative sources.

Academic integrity penalty — This is rare and only applies if you knowingly continue citing a retracted paper’s findings after you know it’s been retracted. Simply citing a paper that was later retracted is not misconduct. But continuing to rely on its findings after discovering the retraction crosses the line into academic dishonesty.

You found a retracted paper in your references and now your stomach is dropping. Take a breath. It is not an academic integrity violation as long as you act. Read the retraction notice, decide whether the retraction affects the specific claim you cited, and then fix the citation based on whether your paper is pre-submission, under review, or already published. That’s the entire process. The steps below walk through exactly how to do each one.

Why “Zombie Citations” Keep Happening

When a paper gets retracted, it doesn’t vanish. The PDF stays online, Google Scholar keeps indexing it, and every citation already pointing to it keeps pointing to it. This is why the term “zombie citations” exists: invalidated research that continues walking through the literature long after the retraction notice.

The numbers are sobering. Across multiple studies in biomedicine, computer science, and beyond, only 4–7% of papers that cite a retracted study actually mention the retraction, while roughly 25% of citations to retracted papers arrive after the retraction has already been published. (Reference Checker) The Retraction Watch Database has logged over 63,000 retractions, and the number grows daily. The University of Brighton frames zombie citations as a critical gap in information literacy education: students learn to verify sources before citing them, but the post-citation remediation process receives far less attention.

The surprising part: this is a structural problem, not individual negligence. Google Scholar doesn’t flag retractions. Copies hosted on institutional repositories and file-sharing sites frequently carry no retraction notice at all. Even reference managers like Zotero (which integrates with the Retraction Watch Database) cover only about 75% of items, DOI and PMID entries only. Papers without DOIs slip through the cracks.

What Counts as “Citing” a Retracted Paper

Before you can fix the problem, you need to know exactly what counts as “citing”, because it’s broader than most students expect.

Every mention of a retracted paper in your work counts as a citation, regardless of format. Here’s what that means in practice:

• In-text citations: “(Smith et al., 2019)” or “[1]” anywhere in your text
• Reference list or bibliography entries: the full bibliographic entry at the end of your paper
• Paraphrasing: even if you didn’t include a citation marker but described a finding or concept from the retracted paper
• Data or findings usage: numerical results, statistical outcomes, experimental conclusions you drew from the paper. As the ICMJE states, “Authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction.” (CASRAI guide)
• Narrative review mentions: “Research by Smith shows that…” even if it’s framed as background context

If any of these exist in your work for a paper that has since been retracted, you need to address it. The fix is different depending on your publication stage, and that’s the primary axis for the entire remediation process.

The Remediation Decision Matrix

Where your paper is determines what you do. Use this table as a reference while you walk through each scenario.

Choose Your Path

Stage	What to Do	How to Cite the Retracted Paper	Who to Contact
Pre-submission	Read the retraction notice. If the retraction reason undermines the specific finding you cited, replace it with a different source or reframe your claim. If the retraction is unrelated (e.g., authorship dispute, ethical issue that doesn’t touch the findings you used), keep the citation but add the retraction note in the reference list.	Use COPE format: prefix the reference entry with “RETRACTED:” and include both the original DOI and the retraction notice DOI.	No one. This is a self-correction before submission.
Under review / Revising	Notify the editor of your manuscript immediately. Update your manuscript with the corrected citation format. Add a note in your response letter explaining the retraction, what it means for your paper, and what changes you made. Run the Citation-Off Test (see below) on every claim that depended on this source.	Same COPE “RETRACTED:” format. In your response letter, quote the retraction notice’s stated reason.	The journal editor or handling editor who is reviewing your manuscript.
Already published (thesis defense, journal article)	Contact the journal’s editorial office directly. If the retracted reference was peripheral (background context, not central to your conclusions), request a correction to the reference list. Most journals handle this as a straightforward corrigendum. If your conclusions depended on the retracted paper’s data or methods, the journal will assess whether your paper needs a correction, expression of concern, or in rare cases, retraction of your own paper.	Same COPE format. In the corrigendum, note that the paper was “subsequently retracted” with reason.	The journal’s managing editor or editorial office. For thesis corrections, contact your thesis advisor and the graduate office.

The COPE Citation Format Example

When you cite a retracted paper in your reference list, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommends the following format (Retraction Watch expert panel):

RETRACTED: Author, A. A., et al. (2020). Title of the retracted paper. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page–Page. https://doi.org/. Retraction notice: Author, A. A., et al. (2021). Retraction: [Title]. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Pages.

This format tells readers, from the reference list alone, that the paper was retracted and provides a direct link to the retraction notice.

The Citation-Off Test

Before you submit a corrected version, run the Citation-Off Test (from Academic Wizard). For each claim that previously cited the retracted paper:

1. Remove the retracted source from your argument entirely (mentally or practically)
2. Read the claim and ask: does this claim still stand on its own evidence?
3. Identify the remaining evidence that supports the claim
4. If the claim fails: narrow it, replace it with a different source, or remove it

The point isn’t to panic about missing one source. It’s to catch situations where removing the citation leaves a claim hanging with no evidence to back it up. That situation requires action, not just a source swap.

Academic Integrity Consequences

Here’s the honest answer: citing a retracted paper in good faith is not academic misconduct. It is a citation error, and examiners expect it to be fixed promptly. The phrase “cited retracted paper what to do” is exactly the kind of query that lands students here — and the answer is simple: act promptly and transparently.

The distinction is simple but critical:

• Good-faith citation (before you knew the paper was retracted): not misconduct. It’s a documentation error, like citing a source whose DOI has a typo. You fix it. Nobody penalizes you beyond asking you to update.
• Knowing citation (after you’ve read the retraction notice but you keep using the paper’s findings as though nothing happened): this crosses into problematic territory. It can be flagged as a research-quality issue, and in extreme cases may trigger an integrity review.
• Ignoring the retraction (discovering it and hoping nobody notices): the worst case. It’s silence that creates the problem, not the original citation.

Grade Impact at Every Level

At the student level, here’s what this looks like in practice:

• Undergraduate essay: your instructor notices the retraction and asks you to fix it. Update the citation and move on.
• Masters dissertation: an examiner spots the retracted citation in your bibliography. If you’ve corrected it and the retraction reason is unrelated to your core findings, this is a minor note. If not, you may be asked to revise.
• PhD thesis or published paper: the stakes are higher. Journals now routinely cross-check reference lists against retraction databases during peer review. A retracted citation can trigger a revision request or, in published work, a corrigendum.

Pro tip: If you discover a retraction after submitting an assignment, contact your instructor through the normal process. Explain which source you found was retracted, provide the retraction notice, and ask about the appropriate next steps. Most instructors appreciate the transparency.

Elizabeth Wager, former chair of COPE, states that “generally, retractions indicate that an entire article is unreliable rather than certain aspects of it.” David Vaux, deputy director at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and a COPE board member, advises that “authors should consider correcting their own paper when a cited reference is retracted if not to do so would mislead the readers.” If you’re unsure whether the retraction affects your specific citation, assume it does and take corrective action.

What the Retraction Notice Actually Means for You

Read the retraction notice before deciding how to handle the citation. The reason matters: a retraction for authorship disputes or ethical violations is very different from one because the central finding did not replicate. The CASRAI Editorial Board stresses this (CASRAI guide): “Don’t assume a retraction means the underlying data or method is automatically wrong.” The notice itself will state the reason, and that reason determines whether your citation is affected at all.

The Citation Swap Error

This is the most common mistake students make when they fix a retracted citation, and it is worth its own section because it is genuinely insidious (Thesisroom).

The Citation Swap Error happens when you replace the citation attached to a sentence with a new source, but the claim you’re making actually loses its evidentiary foundation. You swapped the reference, but the claim now has no support at all.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

Before (the problematic paragraph):

Sleep deprivation reduces working memory capacity. Studies by Smith (2019) showed that participants who slept less than 6 hours scored 23% lower on digit-span tests. This explains why all-night studying is counterproductive.

After (the Citation Swap Error):

Sleep deprivation reduces working memory capacity. Studies by Johnson (2020) showed increased cognitive fatigue. This explains why all-night studying is counterproductive.

You replaced Smith (2019), which you found was retracted for data fabrication, with Johnson (2020). But Johnson (2020) studied “cognitive fatigue” generally, not “working memory capacity” specifically, and it never measured digit-span performance. The claim about “23% lower” scores is now unsupported. You fixed the citation. You broke the evidence chain.

Prevention: Before You Cite Again

Running a final verification pass over your references before submission is the most important habit. Check each reference against:

• PubMed’s retraction filter (search Retracted publication[pt] combined with the source’s title or DOI)
• The Retraction Watch Database: it indexes more retractions than any single publisher database
• CrossMark badges on journal article pages (if the publisher participates in Crossref’s CrossMark service, a retracted article will display a “RETRACTED” watermark on the page)

If you use Zotero or EndNote, make sure the Retraction Watch integration is active and review any flagged items. For papers without DOIs, you’ll need to check manually.

Here’s what most guides won’t tell you: the retraction notice is not a crisis marker. It’s a correction tool, part of the scientific process, just like peer review. Discovering a retracted paper in your own work is an opportunity to demonstrate good research practice, not evidence of incompetence. The students who handle this well are the ones who read the notice, assess the impact honestly, and act transparently. If you’re searching for “cited retracted paper what to do,” this is the exact framework you need: act, don’t ignore, and document your correction.

A remediation workflow flowchart is available that walks through the exact decision logic for each publication stage — from peripheral vs. load-bearing citation to the specific contact and action required.

Here’s the short version of everything above:

1. Confirm the retraction. Search Retraction Watch and read the notice to understand why the paper was withdrawn.
2. Evaluate your argument. Does your claim depend on the retracted finding, or was it cited for background context?
3. Update the citation. Mark it as retracted in your reference list using the correct format (APA, MLA, Chicago, or COPE). Include both the original DOI and the retraction notice DOI.
4. If your paper is already published, contact the journal. Peripheral citations → corrigendum request. Central citations → formal correction or investigation.
5. Going forward, run a retraction check on every source before submitting any paper. Do it again a few days before final submission.

Citing a retracted paper is not the end of the world. It’s a routine part of academic research — a reminder that the scientific record is self-correcting. What matters is how you respond once you find out.

Need help verifying your sources before submission? Our reference verification service can help ensure your references are accurate and up to date.