# RETRACTION: A Systematic Review of Social Support and Related Factors Among Burns Patients

## TL;DR

This retracted paper was a systematic review on social support factors among burn patients, but it was found to have issues like excessive self-citations and plagiarism.

## Contribution

The paper aimed to systematically review social support factors among burn patients, but its findings are invalidated due to academic misconduct.

## Key findings

- The paper was retracted due to excessive self-citations and a compromised peer review process.
- Significant textual overlap was found between this paper and another by the same authors.
- The authors disagree with the retraction decision.

## Abstract

RETRACTION:

FarzanR.
,
VajargahP. G.
,
MollaeiA.
,
KarkhahS.
,
SamidoustP.
,
TakasiP.
,
FalakdamiA.
,
FiroozM.
,
HosseiniS. J.
,
ParviziA.
, and
HaddadiS.
, “A Systematic Review of Social Support and Related Factors Among Burns Patients,” International Wound Journal
20, no. 8 (2023): 3349–3361, 10.1111/iwj.14166.36960557
PMC10502254

The above article, published online on 23 March 2023, in Wiley Online Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/), has been retracted by agreement between the journal Editor in Chief, Professor Keith Harding; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. A third party reported to the journal that they had found evidence of excessive self‐citations in the reference list of this article. The publisher confirmed multiple instances of redundant self‐citations. Upon further investigation, the publisher also concluded that this article was accepted solely on the basis of a compromised peer review process. In addition, the investigation found significant textual overlap between the methods and discussions sections of this article and another article by many of the same authors [1]. In view of the clear evidence of compromised peer review, the parties agreed that the paper must be retracted. The authors disagree with the retraction.

[1]
MehrabiA.
,
FalakdamiA.
,
MollaeiA.
,
TakasiP.
,
VajargahP. G.
,
JafariH.
, et al., “A Systematic Review of Self‐Esteem and Related Factors among Burns Patients,” Annals of Medicine & Surgery
84 (2022): 10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104811.PMC979312336582917