A retracted article has no contrasting cites, does that mean scite is not working?

The mission behind scite is to make science more reliable. To achieve this mission we help anyone interested in scientific research identify if a study has been supported or disputed by analyzing hundreds of millions of citation statements.

One test that users often seek to use as a test of scite is to see if retracted articles have contrasting cites, which in some cases they do not. Does this mean scite is not working?

In short, no. scite illuminates the citation landscape by breaking down citations into three different citation classifications. These classifications help shed a light onto publication bias, a phenomenon that has been well documented in scientific publishing. Thus, a retracted publication might not actually have any contrasting citations made to it and scite simply shows that. Other reasons scite might not have contrasting cites on retracted studies are as follows:

1) There are no contrasting studies to it.
2) The retraction notice does not cite the retracted article.
3) There are contrasting papers, but no contrasting citation statements (see: Does scite classify citation statements or papers?)
4) scite has not yet ingested contrasting papers.

Updated on: 03/18/2021