About Expressions of Concern

Modified on Mon, 04 Dec 2023 at 04:08 PM

Expressions of Concern (EOCs) are issued by journal publishers or editors when concerns have been raised about an article's findings or methodology. In some cases an EOC is an initial step before an article is formally retracted. In other cases an article may not be retracted but an EOC will remain clarifying the concerns about the article.


EOCs are a newer phenomenon in academic publishing. One survey of EOCs in PubMed found EOCs becoming increasingly common in the 2000s-2010s with at least some examples going back into the 1980s.


EOCs will appear throughout the BrowZine and LibKey ecosystem in various places, bringing to light at the linking stage of a user's journey when an article has an EOC. "Expression of Concern Notice" will link to the DOI of the EOC itself where users can read it for more information on the specific concerns raised by the publisher or editor.


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