" The higher a journal’s impact factor, the two editors found, the higher its retraction rate." This is not necessarily evidence of misconduct, however. High i

" The higher a journal’s impact factor, the two editors found, the higher its retraction rate." This is not necessarily evidence of misconduct, however. High impact journals also tend to publish new techniques and surprising results, both of which are more likely to contain subtle, unintentional errors. I haven't been in science long enough to say whether the pressures really are getting worse over time, but my sense is that it's almost always been pretty competitive.