To study the experience of receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a U.K.-based team of researchers collected posts from the Reddit subforum r/schizophrenia, which is dedicated to discussing the disorder. They analyzed and anonymized the data, and published their findings in June 2024 in Current Psychology, a Springer Nature journal. People on the subreddit were concerned about the lack of consent, potential lack of anonymity, and the hypocrisy of discussing ethics in the paper while not seeking consent.

Following "extensive complaints, feedback, and discussions within the team, other researchers, and people with lived experiences", the researchers chose to retract the paper, the December retraction notice stated. Although the researchers stated in the paper that they "secured ethical approval", relatively few study authors who use data from Reddit seek approval from a research ethics committee.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/10/reddit-informed-consent-schizophrenia-study-public-posts-social-media/

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