This article in Inside Higher Ed is worth a look.
Is Retraction the New Rebuttal?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/19/controversy-over-paper-favor-colonialism-sparks-calls-retraction?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=3b6dfa8a05-DNU20170919&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-3b6dfa8a05-226877781&mc_cid=3b6dfa8a05&mc_eid=9e5f7cd1b4
“Controversy over paper in favor of colonialism sparks calls for retraction as well as worries that academics are relying more on erasure than counterargument to challenge unpopular scholarship.”
If erasure of the record is the trend, do librarians have a preservation role in this?
Pursuing the topic, I was interested to find this:
IFLA/IPA Joint Statement on *Retraction or Removal of Journal Articles from the Web
(https://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/joint-statements/2006/pr-26-04-06.pdf)
Some would argue that the retracted papers are poor scholarship or not even scholarship and therefore do no require preservation. Others would say they are part of the historical record and should be preserved.
This is an interesting debate.
Beth