As an essential mechanism of scientific self-correction, articles are retracted for many reasons including errors in processing data and computation of results. In today’s data-driven science, the validity of research data and results significantly depends on the software employed.

It was investigated by scientists David Schindler, Erjia Yan, Sascha Spors, Frank Krüger the relationship between software usage and research validity, eventually leading to article retraction, by analyzing software mentioned across 1,924 retraction notices and 3,271 retracted articles.

Systematically compared software mentions and related information with control articles sampled by Coarsened Exact Matching by recognizing publication year, scientific domain, and journal rank. It was identified article retractions caused by software errors or misuse and find that retracted articles use fewer free and open-source software hampering reproducible research and quality control. Moreover, such differences are also present concerning software citation, where retracted articles less frequently follow software citation guidelines regarding free and open-source software.