Quotationerrorsingeneral sciencejournals

Autores: Neal Smith1,† and Aaron Cumberledge2

Resumen 

Duetotheincrementalnatureofscientificdiscovery, scientificwritingrequiresextensivereferencingtothe writingsofothers.Theaccuracyofthisreferencing isvital,yeterrorsdooccur.Theseerrorsarecalled ‘quotationerrors’.Thispaperpresentsthefirst assessmentofquotationerrorsinhigh-impactgeneral sciencejournals.Atotalof250randomcitations wereexamined.Thepropositionsbeingcitedwere comparedwiththereferencedmaterialstoverify whetherthepropositionscouldbesubstantiatedby thosematerials.Thestudyfoundatotalerrorrateof 25%.Thisresulttrackswellwitherrorratesfoundin similarstudiesinotheracademicfields.Additionally, severalsuggestionsareofferedthatmayhelpto decreasetheseerrorsandmakesimilarstudiesmore feasibleinthefuture.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2020.0538