01 · The Question
Can You Still Use a Paper After an Expression of Concern?
You find a study that fits your research question unusually well. Then you notice that the journal has attached an expression of concern to it.
The paper has not been retracted. Yet the journal has gone beyond publishing an ordinary comment or correction. Something serious enough has happened that readers are being formally alerted.
Should you exclude the study? Can you still cite it? Or should you treat it as valid evidence until an investigation reaches a final conclusion?
The answer depends on what the concern is, what part of the study it affects, and what role the paper would play in your own work.
02 · The Short Answer
An Expression of Concern Creates Evidential Uncertainty
In Brief
An expression of concern does not automatically invalidate a paper, but it is a formal warning that potentially important questions remain unresolved, so you should not use the paper as though its evidential status were unaffected.
Read the notice, determine what is under question, check for subsequent developments, and assess whether your particular claim depends on the affected material. The more your conclusion depends on that paper, the more consequential the unresolved uncertainty becomes.
03 · What You Need to Know
What an Expression of Concern Actually Signals
It Is a Warning About an Unresolved Problem
An expression of concern is a formal publication notice used to alert readers to potentially significant questions about a published work while the matter remains unresolved. It may appear while an investigation is underway, while editors await information from an institution, or when available evidence raises substantial concerns but does not yet support a definitive editorial action.
ICMJE guidance states that when scientific misconduct is alleged or concerns arise about the conduct or integrity of published work, editors may publish an expression of concern while appropriate procedures are underway. COPE guidance similarly recognizes expressions of concern as a way to alert readers when an ongoing review may affect the reliability of published findings.
That makes the notice fundamentally different from a finding that misconduct has occurred. It also makes it different from a clean bill of health.
Expression of concern
Important uncertainty has been formally brought to readers' attention, but the matter has not necessarily reached a final resolution.
Retraction
A formal editorial action has been taken because the publication should no longer be relied upon in the ordinary way, or because another serious basis for retraction applies.
These are therefore different publication states, not merely weaker and stronger versions of the same label. COPE guidance specifically cautions that expressions of concern should not simply be regarded as milder retractions.
The Notice Does Not Prove Misconduct
This distinction matters. An expression of concern may arise in connection with allegations of misconduct, but the notice itself is not proof that misconduct occurred.
An investigation may eventually substantiate the concern and lead to retraction. It may identify an error that can be corrected. It may resolve the matter without establishing misconduct. Different outcomes remain possible while the question is open.
You should therefore avoid converting editorial uncertainty into an accusation against the researchers. The appropriate statement is that the publication carries an expression of concern and that the stated issue remains unresolved, unless authoritative findings establish something more specific.
Read What the Journal Is Actually Concerned About
The words expression of concern tell you less than the notice itself.
A concern might relate to data reliability, image integrity, research ethics, authorship, undisclosed interests, peer-review integrity, or another aspect of the publication. These issues can have very different implications for the particular evidence you intend to use.
Suppose your literature review depends on a study's primary outcome, and the journal's concern specifically involves the data underlying that outcome. That directly affects your evidential use of the paper. If the concern instead concerns a matter that does not bear on the particular finding you are discussing, the implications may differ, although the notice still deserves consideration.
Watch Out
Do not infer the scope or seriousness of an expression of concern from its title alone. Read the notice, follow any linked documentation, and distinguish what the journal actually says from speculation about what might have happened.
Ask Whether Your Claim Depends on the Questioned Material
The practical issue is dependency. What happens to your argument if the concern is eventually substantiated?
How you intend to use the paper
Why the concern matters
Practical response
Central evidence for your main conclusion
Your argument may depend heavily on evidence whose reliability is unresolved
Use substantial caution and seek independent supporting evidence
Effect estimate in a review or meta-analysis
The questioned study may influence the synthesis quantitatively
Consider the implications of inclusion and conduct appropriate sensitivity assessment where methodologically justified
Method or instrument adopted from the study
The concern may or may not affect the methodological material you are using
Determine whether the notice touches that specific component
One source among several supporting the same claim
Your conclusion may remain independently supported
Assess whether the claim stands without the questioned paper
Discussion of a research-integrity controversy
The notice itself may be directly relevant evidence
Cite and describe its status accurately
Look for Independent Evidence Before Depending on the Paper
An expression of concern should make you examine the surrounding literature more carefully. Is the relevant finding independently replicated? Do other studies using different datasets or methods reach similar conclusions? Would your argument survive if this particular paper were removed?
This does not mean counting how many papers agree. Several studies can share the same limitations or dependencies. The aim is to determine whether the conclusion rests substantially on evidence whose reliability is currently uncertain.
If your claim remains well supported without the questioned paper, you may have little reason to make that paper carry substantial evidential weight. If the paper is the only study supporting the claim, the unresolved concern becomes much harder to treat as peripheral.
Check Whether the Status Has Changed
Expressions of concern are especially sensitive to time because they can precede later editorial action. An investigation might eventually lead to correction, retraction, another notice, or resolution of the concern.
Before using the paper, return to the publisher's current record and check whether anything has happened since the expression of concern was issued. This is one reason it is useful to check important papers for post-publication changes rather than relying on an old PDF or bibliographic record.
If your project lasts for months or years, consider checking again before finalizing your manuscript or synthesis.
Do Not Treat the Paper as Retracted Before It Is Retracted
Caution does not require pretending that an editorial decision has already been made.
If a journal has issued an expression of concern rather than a retraction, describe that status accurately. Do not call the article retracted, fraudulent, fabricated, or invalid unless reliable evidence independently supports the particular description.
The distinction between corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions exists for a reason. Collapsing them into a single category discards information about what is currently known and what remains unresolved.
04 · A Practical Example
When the Same Notice Leads to Different Decisions
Hypothetical Example
A Study With an Expression of Concern in Your Literature Review
Imagine that you are reviewing an educational intervention. One influential study reports a large improvement in student performance, but the journal has issued an expression of concern while questions about the study's underlying data are investigated.
Read the notice You establish that the concern relates specifically to the dataset used to calculate the intervention effect.
Identify your dependency Your draft currently uses the study as strong empirical support for the intervention's effectiveness.
Examine independent evidence Several other studies report smaller and less consistent effects. Your conclusion would become substantially more cautious if the questioned study were removed.
Adjust your interpretation You do not declare the study false, because the investigation is unresolved. You also stop allowing its large effect to anchor your conclusion as though no concern existed.
Check again before submission Before finalizing the review, you verify whether the journal has subsequently corrected, retracted, or otherwise updated the article.
The important move is neither automatic exclusion nor automatic acceptance. It is making the unresolved status visible in your assessment of the evidence.
06 · What This Means for You
Match Your Response to the Uncertainty and Your Dependence on the Paper
An expression of concern should change your evaluation, but there is no universal rule that every such paper must be treated identically. Your response should reflect both the stated concern and how much your own conclusion depends on the questioned evidence.
A simple decision framework
If the concern directly affects the result you want to cite
Treat that result as materially uncertain and avoid making it carry more evidential weight than its unresolved status supports.
If the paper is essential to your conclusion
Seek independent evidence and ask whether your conclusion survives without the questioned study.
If the concern appears unrelated to your specific use
Read the notice carefully before deciding that it is irrelevant, and describe the status when it is material to readers' interpretation.
If you are conducting a systematic review or meta-analysis
Follow a transparent protocol for handling studies with integrity notices and assess whether their inclusion affects the synthesis.
If you are discussing the controversy itself
The paper and expression of concern may both be relevant, but describe what is established and what remains unresolved precisely.
The aim is not to predict the investigation's outcome. It is to avoid presenting uncertain evidence with more confidence than its current publication status warrants.
07 · A Quick Checklist
Before Using a Paper With an Expression of Concern
Before relying on the paper, check:
Read the complete expression of concern on the journal or publisher's site.
Identify exactly what aspect of the research is under question.
Distinguish allegations and unresolved concerns from established findings.
Determine whether the concern affects the result, method, dataset, or conclusion you intend to use.
Look for independent evidence supporting the same substantive claim.
Ask whether your conclusion would materially change if the paper were excluded.
Check the publisher's current record for a later correction, retraction, or other resolution.
If you use the paper, represent its current status accurately where that status is relevant to interpretation.
09 · The Bottom Line
An Expression of Concern Should Change How Confidently You Use the Paper
The Bottom Line
An expression of concern does not prove that a paper is invalid, but it formally signals unresolved questions important enough that you should not treat the paper as unaffected evidence.
Read the notice, identify what is under question, look for independent evidence, and check for later developments. Above all, distinguish uncertainty from proof: neither dismiss the concern nor turn it into a conclusion that the journal or investigation has not reached.
11 · Cite this Guide
How to Cite This Guide
This guide is intended to be read, shared, and used in research, teaching, and academic work. If you draw on its ideas, explanations, or other content, please acknowledge the source by citing the guide. Doing so gives appropriate credit and helps your readers locate the original resource.
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