News

Retraction Watch checks

18 June 2026

Merops now automatically checks all references with included or retrieved DOIs against the Retraction Watch database, and alerts users when a cited work has been retracted.

Merops flags references to retracted papers within the document, with a link to the relevant retraction notice, allowing users to quickly review the issue and take appropriate action.

This is a major part of our ongoing work to help students, researchers, and editors ensure citations are accurate and trustworthy.

The Retraction Watch database includes over 60,000 retractions and is updated regularly. The Retraction Watch website features reports on scientific paper retractions, research ethics, and misconduct.

Other improvements

This update includes hundreds of other fixes and enhancements across the system, from recognition to editing accuracy, plus the following new features:

Accessibility improvements

• New feature: Underline all hyperlinks. This is designed to help publishers meet WCAG / Section 508 accessibility compliance and helps ensure outputs are easier to read and review in editorial workflows. It also makes it easy to spot rogue hyperlinks left after copying content from websites.

References

• New feature: Comma between year and month/day in publication date. Available settings: yes | no | make consistent | preserve original
• New preference for reference description case. Title Case
• New feature: Pages style in newspaper references. This follows journal reference setting by default. Available settings: 6-8 | Pp. 6-8 | pp. 6-8 | Pp 6-8 | pp 6-8 | P. 6-8 | p. 6-8 | P 6-8 | p 6-8 | Pages 6-8 | pages 6-8 | make consistent | preserve original

Document history

• New preference for punctuation between items. Spaced pipe ( | )