The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 17 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 1 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals?
Open accessAbstract
The accuracy of quotations and references in six medical journals published during January 1984 was assessed. The original author was misquoted in 15% of all references, and most of the errors would have misled readers. Errors in citation of references occurred in 24%, of which 8% were major errors--that is, they prevented immediate identification of the source of the reference. Inaccurate quotations and citations are displeasing for the original author, misleading for the reader, and mean that untruths become 'accepted fact.'
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
12 Own result · 8 Own interpretation · 5 Own method · 2 No basis given · 1 No full text of the sources
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Of all references, 12% contained errors in these two categories.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The six selected journals are representative of medical journals generally.
- Rests on an assumption: The first issue of each journal published during 1984 is representative of that journal's overall accuracy.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“and most of the errors would have misled readers.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Abstract
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“ofwhich 8% were major errors-that is, they prevented immediate identification of the source of the reference.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The minor errors were in the title of the article or an author's name or initials.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The prevalence of misquotations in the different journals ranged from 10% to 20% (table).”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Roughly one fifth of these were classified as trivial.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The original author was misquoted in 15% of ali references”
- Also stated in: § Discussion · plain
“We found misquotations in 15% of all references, some of them trivial.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The six selected journals are representative of medical journals generally.
- Rests on an assumption: The first issue of each journal published during 1984 is representative of that journal's overall accuracy.
- Also stated in: § Discussion · plain
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Errors in citation of references occurred in 24%, ofwhich 8% were major errors-that is, they prevented immediate identification of the source of the reference.”
- Also stated in: § Discussion · plain
“The overall prevalence of errors of citation was 24%, ranging from 8% to 46%.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The six selected journals are representative of medical journals generally.
- Rests on an assumption: The first issue of each journal published during 1984 is representative of that journal's overall accuracy.
- Also stated in: § Discussion · plain
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Of the remaining misquotations, roughly half were classified as slightly misleading.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Roughly a third of these were major errors, which were in the title of the journal, the volume, or the page numbers.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Probably not a substantial claim. 11
- It may state two separate claims as one. 2
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A reference often represented only a minor aspect of a paper, and we did not attempt to record whether an error had a minor or major impact on the overall findings contained in the paper.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“for instance, two of the journals in this survey contained over 400 references in their January 1984 issue.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Errors occurred when a reference was not to the original source, and this appeared to be because the original source had not been read.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Results
hedgedconditionalSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A few errors of citation will undoubtedly be due to inaccurate transcription by editorial staff or printers, and this will occur particularly with letters, where proofs are not seen by the author.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“prevalences of error of citation of 24% and over (including one of 46%) might properly give cause for concern regarding the accuracy of other material contained within the papers.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
- Rests on an assumption: The six selected journals are representative of medical journals generally.
- Rests on an assumption: The first issue of each journal published during 1984 is representative of that journal's overall accuracy.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“If the British Medical 7ournal accepts full responsibility for accuracy of quotations (and we emphasise that we do not think that this is reasonable, let alone manageable) then the position of that journal is unsatisfactory with an error in one out of every five quotations.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These errors are understandable, but virtually all are readily and easily eliminated by careful checking of the final manuscript and galley proofs.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We did not assess emphasis or arbitrate on differences in interpretation when the differences had been made clear.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Of course some misquotations classified as seriously misleading might appear to be only slightly so (and vice versa) to another reader, and it would be difficult to eliminate completely such differences in opinion.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Fifty references for each issue were then selected by random numbers.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A reference often represented only a minor aspect of a paper, and we did not attempt to record whether an error had a minor or major impact on the overall findings contained in the paper.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We assessed only whether the findings, claims, or statements in the original work had been referred to accurately.”
§ How accurate are quotations and references in medical journals? > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
The paper relies on this without support.
The six selected journals are representative of medical journals generally.
“Six journals were selected.They comprised three general medical journals (the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine); two specialist journals (Clinical Radiology and the British Journal ofSurgery); and a journal with a high proportion ofreview articles”
The paper relies on this without support.
The first issue of each journal published during 1984 is representative of that journal's overall accuracy.
“The first issue of each journal published during 1984 was obtained.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Unverifiable references would have contained errors if they could be verified.
“It should be noted that the overall prevalence of errors we found is probably an underestimate, as all the journals contained some references that could not be verified (table ).”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“It is well established that reference inaccuracies are highly prevalent in the peer-reviewed literature, ranging from 4% to 48% of citations [8-11].”
From High Rates of Fabricated and Inaccurate References in ChatGPT-Generated Medical Content (2023) · cites this paper as [9]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“In the first, and only, systematic investigation of the overall rate of quotation errors representing the general medical literature,[6] the authors estimated that 15% of all cited assertions in published journal articles (including original research articles and literature reviews) were inaccurate.”
From Accuracy of cited "facts" in medical research articles: A review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate (2017) · cites this paper as [6]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Notably, de Lacey et al.[6] reported a quotation error rate of 14.4% (in original research articles), which is very close to the rate 14.5% calculated in the primary analysis here.”
From Accuracy of cited "facts" in medical research articles: A review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate (2017) · cites this paper as [6]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The primary reason for including the de Lacey et al. study[6] representing the broad medical field was because that was only study that examined quotation errors in the major general medical journals (BMJ, the Lancet, the NEJM) and the study might be viewed as a focused study of quotation error rates in general medical journals.”
From Accuracy of cited "facts" in medical research articles: A review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate (2017) · cites this paper as [6]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“A secondary reason was to partially weight the overall mean of quotation errors towards the rate reported in the only study designed to estimate the rate of quotation errors throughout the medical field.”
From Accuracy of cited "facts" in medical research articles: A review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate (2017) · cites this paper as [6]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Major and minor errors are not always defined the same among studies, but the intention of the distinction between major and minor errors remains the same (i.e.whether an error makes finding an original source difficult to find).”
From Reference accuracy of primary studies published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as de Lacey et al., 1985
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“De Lacey et al. reported substantial error rates in major medical journals [2].”
From Systematic review and meta-analysis of quotation inaccuracy in medicine (2025) · cites this paper as [2]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“The estimated rate reported here, 14.5%, which spans nearly 25 years of data, is notably similar to the 14.4% quotation error rate reported[6] in a sample from 1984 (after excluding the data from the journal selected to include a high number of review articles).”
From Accuracy of cited "facts" in medical research articles: A review of study methodology and recalculation of quotation error rate (2017) · cites this paper as [6]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“There is consensus that authors are primarily responsible for the accuracy of their reference lists (de Lacey et al., 1985;Foreman and Kirchhoff, 1987;Place, 1916;Poyer, 1979;Putterman and Lossos, 1991;White, 1987a).”
From Reference accuracy of primary studies published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals: A scoping review (2024) · cites this paper as de Lacey et al., 1985
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“In their study of the accuracy of quotations and references in medical journals, de Lacey and colleagues found a 15% misquotation rate, 4”
From Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“erroneous or inaccurate quotations, if continually repeated, may turn inaccuracies into conventional knowledge. 4”
From Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
In the citing paper
“Depending on the field and the methodology, most analyses of the problem reveal that between 1 in 5 and 1 in 10 citations are used to support claims incongruous with the results of the cited paper (refs. 74-76 and references therein).”
From Misinformation in and about science (2021) · cites this paper as [76]
In the citing paper
“The significance of these misquotes ranged from 'trivial' to 'seriously misleading,' with all six highly regarded journals included in this analysis having published from two to five seriously misleading quotations in 50 randomly selected articles. 4”
From Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
Citations
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- Journal, "Pain in the ear-a presenting symptom of aortic dissection," which pointed out that the auricular nerve was a branch of the vagus. I2 My patient's gastrointestinal troubles were possibly due to implication of this nerve. Before dissection he used to talk of his wandering "hemicrania," but when no explanation could be found he began to suspect his doctors believed he was getting neurotic. Now, however, after hearing of theBMJ reports, he thinks that there should be some type of medical enigma machine to decode such a gallimaufry of symptoms as he has presented.-L S LEWIS, general practitioner, Wales.
- BrewsterMF. Pain intheear-apresentingsymptom ofaorticdissection. BrMedJ 1985;290: 1517.
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Gosling, C. M., Cameron, M., & Gibbons, P. F. (2004) · Manual Therapy · doi:10.1016/s1356-689x(03)00056-0 · Cited by 58
Citation and quotation accuracy in three anatomy journals
Lukić, I. K., Lukić, A., Glunc̆ić, V., Katavić, V., Vuc̆enik, V., & Marus̆ić, A. (2004) · Clinical Anatomy · doi:10.1002/ca.10255 · Cited by 56
“To compare our results with those from previous studies (de Lacey et al., 1985; Schulmeister, 1998; Lee and Lee, 1999; Fenton et al., 2000), we also calculated the percentage of quotation errors per reference.”
InfluentialSuccessful scientific writing: a step-by-step guide for the biological and medical sciences
Matthews, J. R. (1997) · General Pharmacology The Vascular System · doi:10.1016/s0306-3623(97)89868-0 · Cited by 59
Quotation and Reference Accuracy of Three Nursing Journals
Schulmeister, L. (1998) · Image: the Journal of Nursing Scholarship · doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.1998.tb01269.x · Cited by 53
Citing practices in ecology: can we believe our own words?
Todd, P. A., Yeo, D. C. J., Li, D., & Ladle, R. J. (2007) · Oikos · doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2007.15992.x · Cited by 55
Reference accuracy in the emergency medicine literature
Goldberg, R., Newton, E., Cameron, J., Jacobson, R., Chan, L., Bukata, W. R., & Rakab, A. (1993) · Annals of Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0196-0644(05)81995-x · Cited by 49
Should all casualty radiographs be reviewed?
Wardrope, J., & Chennells, P. M. (1985) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.290.6482.1638 · Cited by 51
Aronsky, D., Madani, S., Carnevale, R. J., Duda, S. N., & Feyder, M. T. (2007) · Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association · doi:10.1197/jamia.m2243 · Cited by 50
“References in scientific publications are an important resource for interested readers to access works that are related to a study. For articles that are traditionally published in hard copy the accuracy of bibliographic references varies considerably and ranges from 3% to 60% among general and specialist biomedical j…”
BackgroundHow accurate are citations of frequently cited papers in biomedical literature?
Pavlovic, V., Weissgerber, T., Stanisavljevic, D., Pekmezovic, T., Milicevic, O., Lazovic, J. M., Cirkovic, A., Savic, M., Rajovic, N., Piperac, P., et al. (2021) · Clinical Science · doi:10.1042/cs20201573 · Cited by 46
The quality of citations in major international obstetrics and gynecology journals
a, V. J. R., Lau, T. K., & Keeb, W. D. N. (1997) · American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology · doi:10.1016/s0002-9378(97)70303-x · Cited by 46
Reference accuracy in the dermatologic literature
George, P. M., & Robbins, K. (1994) · Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · doi:10.1016/s0190-9622(94)70136-9 · Cited by 45
A Survey of Reference Accuracy in Five National Dental Journals
Doms, C. (1989) · Journal of Dental Research · doi:10.1177/00220345890680030101 · Cited by 42
Accuracy of references in burns journals
Al-Benna, S., Rajgarhia, P., Ahmed, S., & Sheikh, Z. (2009) · Burns · doi:10.1016/j.burns.2008.11.014 · Cited by 41
“A major citation error was one that ‘‘prevented immediate identification of the source of the reference,’’ for example, incorrect journal name, omission of year and volume, and incorrect pages that did not overlap with correct pages [5].”
BackgroundAccuracy of references in general surgical journals — An old problem revisited
Reddy, M. S., Srinivas, S., Sabanayagam, N., & Balasubramanian, S. P. (2008) · The Surgeon · doi:10.1016/s1479-666x(08)80067-4 · Cited by 41
Richardson, J. T. E. (2015) · Interchange · doi:10.1007/s10780-015-9251-9 · Cited by 41
Lexchin, J., & Holbrook, A. M. (1994) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 36
Quotation errors in general science journals
Smith, N., & Cumberledge, A. (2020) · Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspa.2020.0538 · Cited by 32
The Principles of Biomedical Scientific Writing: Citation
Bahadoran, Z., Mirmiran, P., Kashfi, K., & Ghasemi, A. (2020) · Intern J Endocrinol Metab · doi:10.5812/ijem.102622 · Cited by 35
“Inaccurate quotations are displeasing for the cited author, misleading for the reader, and initiate circulation of false facts (7, 10).”
BackgroundLee, S. Y., & Lee, J. S. (1999) · International Journal of Dermatology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-4362.1999.00706.x · Cited by 34
The accuracy of references of three allergy journals
Siebers, R. W. L. (2000) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1067/mai.2000.104935 · Cited by 34
Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence
Rivkin, A. (2020) · American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education · doi:10.5688/ajpe7846 · Cited by 32
The dissemination of false data through inadequate citation
Larsson, K. (1995) · Journal of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2796.1995.tb01222.x · Cited by 31
Quotation Accuracy in Review Articles
Neihouse, P. F., & Priske, S. C. (1989) · DICP · doi:10.1177/1060028089023007-813 · Cited by 29
Buijze, G. A., Weening, A. A., Poolman, R. W., Bhandari, M., & Ring, D. (2012) · The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British volume · doi:10.1302/0301-620x.94b2.27618 · Cited by 27
(2005) · PubMed · Cited by 28
Accuracy of Referencing in the Ophthalmic Literature
Buchan, J. C., Norris, J. L., & Kuper, H. (2005) · American Journal of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2005.07.018 · Cited by 27
A review of the accuracy of references in the journal Emergency Medicine
O’Connor, A. E. (2002) · Emergency Medicine Australasia · doi:10.1046/j.1442-2026.2002.00307.x · Cited by 26
The accuracy of reference lists in five experimental psychology journals.
Faunce, G. J., & Job, R. F. S. (2001) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.56.10.829 · Cited by 28
Comparison of Researcher’s Reference Management Software: Refworks, Mendeley, and EndNote
Basak, S. K. (2014) · Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies · doi:10.22610/jebs.v6i7.517 · Cited by 23
“…years (Hernon & Metoyer-Duran, 1992), or a misspelling when the search is done on a computer (Orlin et al., 1996) and “inaccurate quotations and citations are displeasing for the original authors, misleading for the reader, and mean that untruths become ‘accepted fact’”(De Lacey et al., 1985).”
BackgroundAccessibility and Accuracy of Web Page References in 5 Major Medical Journals
Crichlow, R., Winbush, N., & Davies, S. (2004) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.292.22.2723-c · Cited by 24
Incorrect citations: a comparison of library literature with medical literature.
Benning, S., & Speer, S. C. (1993) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 23
Reference Accuracy: Best Practices for Making the Links
Meyer, C. A. (2008) · Journal of Electronic Publishing · doi:10.3998/3336451.0011.206 · Cited by 22
Technical editing of research reports in biomedical journals
Wager, E., & Middleton, P. (2007) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.mr000002.pub2 · Cited by 20
Reference accuracy in four rehabilitation journals
Unver, B., Senduran, M., Unver Kocak, F., Gunal, I., & Karatosun, V. (2009) · Clinical Rehabilitation · doi:10.1177/0269215508102968 · Cited by 21
Referencing practices in physical geography: How well do we cite what we write?
Haussmann, N. S., McIntyre, T., Bumby, A. J., & Loubser, M. J. (2013) · Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment · doi:10.1177/0309133313482135 · Cited by 20
“Such suggestions have been summarized by Todd et al. (2010) and include publishing citation errors identified by readers (de Lacey et al., 1985), as well as instigating a process whereby authors are required to submit appropriate sections of text from cited material as requested by the editor,…”
BackgroundLiterature Reviews and Inaccurate Referencing: An Exploratory Study of Academic Librarians
Hernon, P., & Metoyer-Duran, C. (1992) · College & Research Libraries · doi:10.5860/crl_53_06_499 · Cited by 19
Accuracy of References in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport
Stull, G. A., Christina, R. W., & Quinn, S. A. (1991) · Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport · doi:10.1080/02701367.1991.10608720 · Cited by 19
HOW ACCURATE ARE REFERENCES IN THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SURGERY?
Kee, W. D. N., Roach, V. J., & Lau, T. K. (1997) · Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery · doi:10.1111/j.1445-2197.1997.tb02005.x · Cited by 19
Accuracy of References in Ten Library Science Journals
Colyar, N. N. (1992) · Cited by 18
Reference Accuracy in The Journal of Hand Surgery
Jackson, K., Porrino, J. A., Tan, V., & Daluiski, A. (2003) · The Journal of Hand Surgery · doi:10.1053/jhsu.2003.50085 · Cited by 18
How accurate is the neurosurgery literature? A review of references
Montenegro, T. S., Hines, K., Gonzalez, G. A., Fatema, U., Partyka, P. P., Thalheimer, S., & Harrop, J. (2021) · Acta Neurochirurgica · doi:10.1007/s00701-020-04576-3 · Cited by 16
Technology in nursing scholarship: Use of citation reference managers
Smith, C. M., & Baker, B. (2007) · International Journal of Mental Health Nursing · doi:10.1111/j.1447-0349.2007.00462.x · Cited by 17
The Ombudsman: Verification of Citations: Fawlty Towers of Knowledge?Preprint
Wright, M., & Armstrong, J. S. (2011) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.1941335 · Cited by 17
Burden of proof: combating inaccurate citation in biomedical literature
Peoples, N., Østbye, T., & Yan, L. L. (2023) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-076441 · Cited by 21
Martella, A. M., Yatcilla, J., Martella, R. C., Marchand‐Martella, N. E., Ozen, Z., Karatas, T., Park, H. H., Simpson, A., & Karpicke, J. D. (2021) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/0034654321991228 · Cited by 16
Accuracy of References in General Readership Nursing Journals
Oermann, M. H., Mason, N. M., & Wilmes, N. A. (2002) · Nurse Educator · doi:10.1097/00006223-200211000-00006 · Cited by 14
Citation Errors in Two Journals of Psychiatry: A Retrospective Analysis
Wyles, D. F. (2004) · Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian · doi:10.1300/j103v22n02_02 · Cited by 13
Gehanno, J.-F., Darmoni, S. J., & Caillard, J. (2005) · PubMed · Cited by 13
Evaluating the Accuracy of Citations in Drug Promotional Brochures
Keng, A., & Coley, R. M. (1994) · Annals of Pharmacotherapy · doi:10.1177/106002809402801102 · Cited by 13
Accuracy of references in psychiatric literature: a survey of three journals
Lawson, L. A., & Fosker, R. (1999) · Psychiatric Bulletin · doi:10.1192/pb.23.4.221 · Cited by 12
“Carelessness in reference citations could be indicative of a lack of discipline that also reflectsthe investigator's approach to other aspects of the research (i.e. research protocol, data man agement and laboratory practices in general) (de Lacey et al, 1985; Biebuyck, 1992).”
BackgroundResultReference accuracy in spine surgery
Montenegro, T. S., Hines, K., Partyka, P. P., & Harrop, J. (2021) · Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine · doi:10.3171/2020.6.spine20640 · Cited by 12
Assessing citation integrity in biomedical publications: corpus annotation and NLP models
Sarol, M. J., Ming, S., Radhakrishna, S., Schneider, J., & Kilicoglu, H. (2024) · Bioinformatics · doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btae420 · Cited by 12
“…errors are often categorized as major and minor; the former referring to errors that seriously misrepresent the claims of the reference paper and the latter referring to inconsistencies or factual errors that are not sufficiently serious to alter the meaning of the source (De Lacey et al. 1985).”
BackgroundThe accuracy of references in the Hong Kong Medical Journal.
Kee, W. D. N., Roach, V., & Lau, T. K. (1997) · PubMed · Cited by 11
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis as a complication of treatment with gold.
Cohen, M., Day, C. P., & Day, J. L. (1985) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.290.6476.1179 · Cited by 11
Celayir, A. C., Sander, S., & Celayir, S. (2003) · Journal of Pediatric Surgery · doi:10.1053/jpsu.2003.50154 · Cited by 11
Systematic review and meta-analysis of quotation inaccuracy in medicine
Baethge, C., & Jergas, H. (2025) · Research Integrity and Peer Review · doi:10.1186/s41073-025-00173-z · Cited by 11
“And yet, in an early investigation into their accuracy, De Lacey et al. reported substantial error rates in major medical journals [2].”
Verify Your Citations: Accuracy of Reference Citations in Twelve Business and Economics Journals
O'Connor, L. G., & Kristof, C. (2001) · Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship · doi:10.1300/j109v06n04_03 · Cited by 10
Accuracy of references in the ophthalmic literature
Oren, G. A., & Watson, M. M. (2009) · Journal of the Medical Library Association JMLA · doi:10.3163/1536-5050.97.2.014 · Cited by 10
Taking Control of Your Digital Library
Mahajan, A. K., & Hogarth, D. K. (2013) · CHEST Journal · doi:10.1378/chest.13-0856 · Cited by 9
How Accurate Are References in Clinical Chemistry?
Siebers, R. W. L. (2001) · Clinical Chemistry · doi:10.1093/clinchem/47.3.606 · Cited by 9
How to Reduce Errors and Improve Transparency by Using More Precise Citations
Lin, T., & Hung, T. (2022) · Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine · doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.866279 · Cited by 8
“[(1), D3] more than two decades ago, suggesting that merely pointing out how prevalent these errors do little to reduce them.”
BackgroundShould all casualty radiographs be reviewed?
Channells, P. M., & Wardrope, J. (1985) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.291.6490.284-a · Cited by 8
A comprehensive bibliography database using a microcomputer.
Sellu, D. P. (1986) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.292.6536.1643 · Cited by 8
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Frels, R. K., & Slate, J. R. (2010) · Cited by 8
Importance, Errors, and Patterns of Quotations to Psychiatric Original Articles
Baethge, C. (2020) · Pharmacopsychiatry · doi:10.1055/a-1167-3567 · Cited by 7
“De Lacey and co-authors [1], in what is probably the first study on the subject in medicine in 1985, related a 15 % error rate among 300 quotations.”
BackgroundDriscoll, P. (1997) · Emergency Medicine Journal · doi:10.1136/emj.14.2.65 · Cited by 7
Citation Accuracy: A Case Study on Definition of the Grey Water Footprint
Ansorge, L., & Stejskalová, L. (2023) · Publications · doi:10.3390/publications11010008 · Cited by 6
Reference accuracy of primary studies about reference accuracy: A descriptive study
Logan, S. W., Hussong-Christian, U., Case, L., & Noregaard, S. (2024) · Journal of Librarianship and Information Science · doi:10.1177/09610006231224437 · Cited by 6
“Ultimately, there is widespread acceptance that while editors and reviewers may play a role in reference accuracy, the primary responsibility relies with the authors (de Lacey et al., 1985; Logan et al., 2023; Place, 1916a, 1916b; Stull et al., 1991).”
Quotation Accuracy of Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols on Acupuncture
Morán, J. M., Romero-Moreno, M., García, A. S., & Herrera‐Peco, I. (2021) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare10010055 · Cited by 6
“Misquotations are unpleasant for the original author, misleading to the reader, and imply that falsehoods and inaccuracies become “established knowledge” that pollutes the body of knowledge on the topic under study [5].”
BackgroundGlenton, C., & Carlsen, B. (2019) · International Journal of Qualitative Methods · doi:10.1177/1609406919841251 · Cited by 5
“…between citation errors (errors that could prevent immediate identification of the source of reference, for instance, because of misspelling of author names) and quotation errors (errors that deal with the accuracy of statements made in regard to another author’s work; De Lacey et al., 1985).”
BackgroundInfluentialA retrospective analysis of reported errata in five leading medical journals in 2012
Bhatt, V. R., Aryal, M. R., Panta, S., Mosalpuria, K., & Armitage, J. O. (2014) · Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives · doi:10.3402/jchimp.v4.25738 · Cited by 6
Citing practices in ecology: can we believe our own words?
Todd, P. A., Yeo, D. C. J., Li, D., et al. (2007) · Oikos · doi:10.1111/j.2007.0030-1299.15992.x · Cited by 6
Nuzzo, J. L. (2021) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-021-04068-w · Cited by 7
Metadata
- Authors
- de Lacey, G., Record, C., & Wade, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 1985-09-28
- Volume
- 291
- Issue
- 6499
- Pages
- 884-886
- ISSN
- 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
- 0267-0623
- 1468-5833
- OpenAlex
- W2009777888
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 48.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Publishing and Scholarly Communication
- Social Sciences › Education › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Keywords
- quotation errors, citation errors, medical journals, citation accuracy, misquotation, scientific integrity, editorial quality control
- MeSH terms
- Information Services, Periodicals as Topic, Publishing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-11, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-11 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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