Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study gathered information about the retraction policies of the top 200 scientific journals, ranked by impact factor. METHODS: Editors of the top 200 science journals for the year 2012 were contacted by email. RESULTS: One hundred forty-seven journals (74%) responded to a request for information. Of these, 95 (65%) had a retraction policy. Of journals with a retraction policy, 94% had a policy that allows the editors to retract articles without authors' consent. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of journals in this sample had a retraction policy, and almost all of them would retract an article without the authors' permission.