Free tool
Retraction checker: is this paper retracted?
Citing a retracted paper is one of the most damaging mistakes a thesis can carry. Paste a DOI and get a verdict from an indexed corpus of 4.6 million papers, with live catalogs as backup. Curious how common retractions are? See the live retraction statistics.
Why retractions are easy to miss
Retraction notices live on publisher pages, not in the PDF you downloaded two years ago. A paper you read, saved and cited can be retracted long after it entered your reference manager, and nothing in your files will tell you. Reference lists inherit this silently: studies of citation behaviour have repeatedly found retracted papers still being cited as valid evidence years after withdrawal.
The safe workflow is to check at citation time and keep checking until submission. That is how CiteDash treats it: every paper in your library carries a live retraction flag, retracted papers are blocked from being cited, and a retraction that lands after you cited a paper is surfaced in your bibliography rather than buried.
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Never cite a retracted paper again
CiteDash monitors every source in your thesis for retractions, continuously, and its Fact Checker verifies each AI claim against the paper it cites.
Retraction FAQ
What does a retraction mean?
A retraction is a formal withdrawal of a published paper, usually for serious error, misconduct or irreproducible results. Retracted work should not be cited as evidence, though it is sometimes discussed as an object of study.
Where does this checker get its data?
It checks the CiteDash corpus of 4.6 million indexed papers first, then falls back to live scholarly catalogs. Retraction flags originate from publisher notices aggregated by OpenAlex.
A paper shows no retraction. Is it definitely fine?
A clean result means no retraction notice is on record today. Papers can be retracted years after publication, which is why CiteDash re-checks every paper you cite continuously and blocks retracted sources at citation time.
Can I check my whole bibliography at once?
Yes: the free bibliography checker at citedash.ai/bibliography-check takes your whole reference list in one paste and flags retracted papers and DOIs that do not resolve. Inside CiteDash, every paper in your library carries a live retraction badge automatically.