Check Retraction

checkRetraction

Looks up the live retraction status of an identifier against Crossref's update relationships and the Retraction Watch database. The route resolves any supported identifier to a DOI first, then checks it. Returns retraction / correction / expression-of-concern flags plus the notice records.

When to use

• A user asks "is this paper still valid?" or "has this been retracted?"
• An agent is about to cite a paper in a clinical, legal, or academic context where retraction-awareness matters.
• A reviewer wants to flag retracted references in a manuscript.

Inputs

• id (string, required) — one identifier per call: DOI (including shortDOI aliases like 10/aabbe), PMID, PMCID, arXiv ID, or ADS bibcode. Pass it verbatim (PMID: and similar prefixes are tolerated). Books/ISBNs have no DOI, so they return a "no DOI" result.

Outputs

{
  "ok": true,
  "doi": "10.1016/s0140-6736(97)11096-0",
  "resolvedFrom": { "type": "pmid", "value": "9500320" },
  "result": {
    "isRetracted": true,
    "hasCorrections": false,
    "hasConcern": false,
    "notices": [
      {
        "type": "retraction",
        "label": "Retraction",
        "doi": "...",
        "date": "1998-03-06",
        "source": "crossref"
      }
    ],
    "title": "..."
  }
}

• resolvedFrom is present only when the input was not already a DOI.
• When no DOI can be found, result is null and reason is one of no_doi / timeout / upstream.

Underlying surfaces

• REST: POST /api/retraction-check with { "id": "…" }.
• Web UI: /tools/retraction-checker.
• MCP tool: checkRetraction.

Example

curl -sS -X POST "https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/retraction-check" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":"10.1016/s0140-6736(97)11096-0"}'

See also

• verifyCitation for fabrication detection (different concern — fake vs. retracted).
• checkOpenAccess for legal-copy lookup.