The PLOS One Editors retract this article [1] because it was identified as one of a series of submissions for which we have concerns about compromised peer review and compliance with PLOS policy on Manipulation of the Publication Process.
In addition, the articles cited as References 6 and 7 were retracted during the peer review of [1]; the article cited as Reference 78 was retracted after acceptance but prior to publication of [1]; and the articles cited as References 41 and 81 were retracted after publication of [1].
HZ, XJ, XX, and WUHS did not agree with the retraction. YS either did not respond directly or could not be reached.
Reference
Citation: The PLOS One Editors (2026) Retraction: Sports resources utilization efficiency, productivity change, and regional production technology heterogeneity in Chinese Provinces: DEA-SBM and Malmquist Index Approaches. PLoS One 21(7): e0352816. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0352816
Published: July 8, 2026
Copyright: © 2026 The PLOS One Editors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.