In April 2022, a first-year PhD student published his first peer-reviewed article in the journal Qualitative Research. Less than four months later, amid viral public outrage, that article, Karl Andersson’s “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan,” was removed from publication and formally retracted by the Journal Editors. This paper explores the controversy surrounding the so-called “masturbation article” and its relevance to the field of publishing studies. I begin with a general overview of the shota manga genre and its legal context and provide a factual short history of the affair. I then demonstrate what a good-faith positive peer review of Andersson’s article may have included and critically assess Qualitative Research’s Retraction Notice, alongside other published ethical complaints. I conclude by showing how both Andersson’s article and the Japanese manga he studies have been censored for the same reasons, with troubling implications for freedom of speech in the twenty-first century.

2022 年 4 月，一名一年级博士生在《定性研究》杂志上发表了他的第一篇同行评议文章。不到四个月后，在病毒式的公愤中，卡尔·安德森（Karl Andersson）的那篇文章“我并不孤单——我们都是孤单的：将手淫作为一种人种学方法来研究shota日本的亚文化”，被期刊编辑从出版物中删除并正式撤回。本文探讨了围绕所谓“手淫文章”的争议及其与出版研究领域的相关性。我首先概述了 Shota 漫画类型及其法律背景，并提供了该事件的事实简短历史。然后，我展示了对 Andersson 文章的善意正面同行评审可能包含的内容，并批判性地评估了Qualitative Research的撤稿通知以及其他已发表的道德投诉。最后，我展示了安德森的文章和他研究的日本漫画是如何因为同样的原因而受到审查的，这对 21 世纪的言论自由产生了令人不安的影响。