Table 4.
Citation inaccuracies
| Citation inaccuracies | Total n (%) | Feasibility study n (%) | Verification set n (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inaccurate citations, n (%) | 688/7,438 (9.2) | 183/2,526 (7.2) | 505/4,912 (10.3) |
| Articles with inaccurate citations, n (%) | 620/4,535 (13.7) | 171/1,540 (11.1) | 449/2,995 (15.0) |
| Type of citation error, n (%)* | |||
| Citation of nonexistent finding | 264 (38.4) | 86 (47.0) | 178 (35.2) |
| Inaccurate interpretation of findings | 106 (15.4) | 39 (21.3) | 67 (13.3) |
| Inaccurately cited numerical data/results | 114 (16.6) | 16 (8.7) | 98 (19.4) |
| Wrong context | 41 (6.0) | 15 (8.2) | 26 (5.1) |
| Citation of quoted findings of another source | 104 (15.1) | 11 (6.0) | 93 (18.4) |
| Inaccurately cited method | 34 (4.9) | 9 (4.9) | 25 (4.9) |
| Citation of nonexistent numerical data/results | 18 (2.6) | 6 (3.3) | 12 (2.4) |
| Reference listed in bibliography but not cited in the text | 6 (0.9) | 1 (0.5) | 5 (1.0) |
| Number of structured articles, n (%) | 2,439 (53.8) | 827 (53.7) | 1,612 (53.8) |
| Inaccurate citations in structured articles, n (%)** | |||
| Introduction | 199/1,469 (13.5) | 37/451(8.2) | 162/1,018 (15.9) |
| Method | 70/399 (17.5) | 1/34 (2.9) | 69/365 (18.9) |
| Results | 34/159 (21.4) | 3/42 (7.1) | 31/117 (26.5) |
| Discussion | 280/1,797 (15.6) | 80/746 (10.7) | 200/1,051 (19.0) |
| Chains of inaccurate citations | |||
| Number of chains of inaccurate citations | 27 | 13 | 14 |
| Total number of articles included in chains | 133 | 44 | 89 |
| Average number of articles included in chain, median (range) | 3 (2, 20) | 3 (2,7) | 4 (2, 20) |
*
Denominators in this section are total numbers of inaccurate citations
**
Denominators in this section list the number of citations of a source article in the specified section of structured original research articles