diff --git a/indra/literature/pubmed_client.py b/indra/literature/pubmed_client.py
index add116be74..a56ed1990b 100644
--- a/indra/literature/pubmed_client.py
+++ b/indra/literature/pubmed_client.py
@@ -973,7 +973,7 @@ def article_is_retracted(pmid: str) -> bool:
     Parameters
     ----------
     pmid :
-        The PMID of the paper to check as an integer.
+        The PMID of the paper to check as a string.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -982,8 +982,8 @@ def article_is_retracted(pmid: str) -> bool:
     """
     global retractions
     if retractions is None:
-        with gzip.open(RETRACTIONS_FILE, 'rt') as fh:
-            retractions = {row[0] for row in csv.reader(fh, delimiter='\t')}
+        with open(RETRACTIONS_FILE, 'r') as fh:
+            retractions = {row[0] for row in fh.read().splitlines()}
     return pmid in retractions