Dear All,
We are delighted to inform you that Department of Library & Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur, organised a special online lecture under its series “Gyan Pravah: Online Lecture Series in LIS." The 10th lecture in the series was held on 7th January 2026 (Wednesday) from 06:30 PM to 07:30 PM via Google Meet. Dr. Ivan Oransky, MD, Co-Founder of Retraction Watch and Executive Director of the Center for Scientific Integrity, was invited as the resource person and delivered a lecture on the topic “Retractions: On the Rise, But Not Enough.”
The programme commenced with a welcome address, followed by the introduction of the speaker by Prof. S. Thanuskodi, Professor & Head of the Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur who highlighted the speaker’s contributions to research integrity and scholarly publishing.
The invited speaker, Dr. Ivan Oransky, delivered a one-hour lecture focusing on the role of retractions in correcting the scholarly record and maintaining public trust in research. He emphasized that retractions are intended to correct the literature rather than punish authors, and that despite an increase in retractions, they are still not sufficient in proportion to the volume of unreliable research. During the lecture, Dr. Oransky discussed why retractions matter, particularly in cases of large-scale falsification and editorial failures that risk undermining confidence in science. He explained what gets retracted and who decides, noting that editors may retract publications when confidence in the results is lost, in line with established publication ethics guidelines. The speaker outlined common reasons for retractions, including duplication, plagiarism, image manipulation, faked data, fake peer review, publisher errors, authorship issues, legal reasons, paper mills, and voluntary retractions undertaken as an act of doing the right thing. He clearly distinguished between research misconduct, fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, and honest error, emphasizing that honest mistakes and differences of opinion do not constitute misconduct. An emerging trend discussed during the session was the appearance of AI-generated or AI-assisted writing in papers and peer-review reports. Dr. Oransky emphasized the importance of transparency and careful editorial judgment in handling such cases. He also cautioned that ranking systems and policy frameworks that penalize retractions may discourage responsible self-correction and transparency. The lecture was followed by an interactive Q&A session, during which participants engaged in discussions related to retraction practices, research misconduct, AI in scholarly publishing, and research evaluation systems.
The programme was coordinated by Dr. Anila Sulochana, Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, and attended by more than 40 participants. The session concluded with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. S. Ravikumar, Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Tamil Nadu, who thanked the speaker and participants for their valuable contributions.
The virtual invited talk was informative and beneficial to faculty members, research scholars, and students, offering important insights into contemporary challenges in scholarly communication and research integrity.
