To investigate journal article retractions and withdrawals in neurology literature, and determine temporal and geographic trends.

We searched the Retraction Watch database for articles in the field of neurology that had been retracted till July 2020. We extracted the data, and investigated trends in year of retraction, country of origin, article type and reasons for retraction, amongst others.

In neurology, retractions continue to form a growing but small part of the literature. However, the recent rate of their increase has been rapid, similar to other specialties. There is large variation in time to retraction after publication. Plagiarism remains the most common 'single identifiable cause' of retraction, suggesting better integration of manuscript submission platforms with plagiarism-detection and web-indexing softwares is needed. Greater scrutiny for misconduct by journal editors and reviewers, and expanded training in research ethics may help prevent an upcoming crisis of research fraud.