Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the rate of citation errors in the reference lists of five social work journals. High error rates have been found in journals in fields such as medicine and psychology but have not yet been investigated in social work journals. A stratified, computer-generated random sample was selected (N = 500, 100 per journal), and each reference was verified against the original work for accuracy in six fields: article title, author name(s), journal title, pagination, volume, and year. In examining the total sample of 500 references across the five journals, 206 references (41.2%) contained at least one error. Suggestions for reduction of error rates are discussed, as are suggestions for future study in this area.

Keywords

social work publishing social work education reference lists reference errors reference accuracy scholarly writing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychological Association . (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

An author’s guide to social work journals (4th ed.). (1997). Washington, DC: NASW Press.

Asai, T. , & Vickers, M. D. (1995). Citation errors—There is still much to be done [Correspondence]. Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, 42, 1063.

Asano, M. , Mikawa, K. , Nishina, K. , Maekawa, N. , & Obara, H. (1995). Improvement of the accuracy of references in the Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia. Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, 42, 370-372.

Benning, S. P. , & Speer, S. C. (1993). Incorrect citations: A comparison of library literature with medical literature. Medical Library Association Bulletin, 81, 56-58.

Bevan, D. R. , & Purkis, J. M. (1995). Citation errors can be reduced [Editorial]. Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, 42, 367-369.

Eichorn, P. , & Yankauer, A. (1987). Do authors check their references? A survey of accuracy of references in three public health journals. American Journal of Public Health, 77, 1011-1012.

Evans, J. T. , Nadjari, H. I. , & Burchell, S. A. (1990). Quotational and reference accuracy in surgical journals: A continuing peer review problem. Journal of the American Medical Association, 263, 1353-1354.

Faunce, G. J. , & Job, R. F. S. (2001). The accuracy of reference lists in five experimental psychology journals. American Psychologist, 56, 829-830.

10.

Fenton, J. E. , Brazier, H. , De Souza, A. , Hughes, J. P. , & McShane, D. P. (2000). The accuracy of citation and quotation in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery journals. Clinical Otolaryngology, 25, 40-44.

11.

Foreman, M. D. , & Kirchhoff, K. T. (1987). Accuracy of references in nursing journals. Research in Nursing and Health, 10, 177-183.

12.

Goldberg, R. , Newton, E. , Cameron, J. , Jacobson, R. , Chan, L. , Bukata, W. R. , et al. (1993). Reference accuracy in the emergency medicine literature. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 22, 1450-1454.

13.

Key, J. D. , & Roland, C. G. (1977). Reference accuracy in articles accepted for publication in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 58, 136-137.

14.

Kristof, C. (1994). Accuracy of references in five entomology journals. Unpublished master’s research paper, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.

15.

Peden, B. F. (1991). Teaching the importance of accuracy in preparing references. Teaching of Psychology, 18(2), 102-105.

16.

Poyer, R. K. (1979). Inaccurate references in significant journals of science. Medical Library Association Bulletin, 67, 396-398.

17.

Sweetland, J. H. (1989). Errors in bibliographic citations: A continuing problem. Library Quarterly, 59(4), 291-304.

18.

Taylor, M. K. (1998). The practical effects of errors in reference lists in nursing research journals. Nursing Research, 47(5), 300-303.

19.

White, A. (1987). Reference inaccuracies in two counseling journals. Counselor Education and Supervision, 26(4), 286-292.