Dec 17, 2014 01:00 PM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

A blog that tracks the retractions of scholarly articles will expand its coverage thanks to a $400,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

With the grant -- $200,000 per year for two years -- Retraction Watch will create a comprehensive and freely available database of retractions. This will allow researchers to check if a paper they plan to cite has been retracted.

"The main benefit would be that scientists could use it when planning experiments and preparing manuscripts to make sure studies they would like to cite have not been the subject of a retraction, correction, expression of concern or similar action. Retracted studies are often cited as if they were still valid," founder Ivan Oransky said in a blog post.

The generous donation will allow Retraction Watch to hire a reporter, an editor, and a database developer.

"This resource would be vital for the academic community and is one about which we frequently are asked. The biotech and pharmaceutical industries also have a financial incentive to use this database," Oransky said. "For example, two analyses -- one by Bayer, another by Amgen -- found that most compounds the companies licensed did not perform in the lab as described in the literature," Oransky added.

In addition to the database, the grant will also allow Retraction Watch to write more for other outlets, "taking deeper dives, as we did in "The Peer Review Scam" for Nature last month," he added.

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