I read with interest the Editorial by Professor Izet Masic on the importance of reference citation in biomedical articles (1). I acknowledge the importance of properly crediting authors of published articles in peer-reviewed journals in order for that journal’s impact factor and also for the author’s H-index. However, I feel that the Editorial has overlooked an important factor in proper reference citation, namely the accuracy of references in the medical and biomedical literature. Many studies on reference accuracy have been done in the biomedical literature with reports of 4.1% to 40.3% of reference inaccuracies in leading medical journals (2). The last Cochrane review of 66 published studies of reference accuracy in 2008 showed a median citation error rate of 38% (3).
Apart from problems in locating the cited journal article if a major reference element, such as year of publication or authors names, is erroneous; is that cited authors are not credited with citation to their article thus potentially affecting their H-index. The H-index nowadays is a major factor in academic promotions.
Of course, apart from correct reference citation, it is important for the cited literature to be accurately quoted. The Cochrane review also showed a medium quotation error rate of 20% (3).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None declared.
REFERENCES
- 1.Masic I. The importance of proper citation of references in biomedical articles. Acta Inform Med. 2013;21(3):148–155. doi: 10.5455/aim.2013.21.148-155. doi: 10.5455/aim.2013.21.148-155. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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