The article is a defense of the retraction of Lawrence M. Mead’s “Poverty and Culture” from the journal Society in 2020. Four reasons for retraction are adduced: the unreliable content; the faulty review process; the redundancy of the article in relation to previous articles by Mead; and the defamation of racial and national groups. The article discusses the ethics of retraction in general, arguing that retraction is an indispensable procedure for correcting errors and maintaining high academic standards. The article also seeks to allay the apprehension that retraction is contrary to the spirit of free speech. Since a statement of retraction is a form of discourse and an exercise of academic judgment by the editors, retraction is an instance, not a violation, of free speech.

这篇文章为2020年《社会》杂志撤稿劳伦斯·米德的《贫困与文化》一文辩护。列举了四点撤稿理由：内容不可靠；错误的审查程序；这篇文章相对于米德之前的文章是多余的；以及对种族和民族群体的诽谤。这篇文章从总体上讨论了撤稿的伦理问题，认为撤稿是纠正错误和保持高学术水平不可或缺的程序。这篇文章还试图消除人们对撤回与言论自由精神背道而驰的担忧。由于撤回声明是一种话语形式和编辑的学术判断，因此撤回是言论自由的一个例子，而不是违反言论自由。