Reference List Accuracy in Social Work Journals: A Follow-Up Analysis

Purpose: Following up an Research on Social Work Practice article published a decade ago, this study aimed to examine reference error rates among five, widely circulated social work journals. Methods: A stratified random sample of references was selected from the year 2013 (N = 500, 100/journal). Each was verified against the original work to detect errors among author name(s), publication year, article title, journal title, volume number, and page numbers. Interrater consistency was 0.88. Results: In the sample, 163 (33%) references contained at least 1 error, producing 258 total errors. Author names held the highest error rate (0.26) and the volume number held the lowest (0.04). The highest error rate was found in Social Service Review (0.48), statistically significantly higher than the remaining journals. Discussion: Reference accuracy in social work journal articles has increased marginally. Substantial reference errors in articles among widely circulated journals may portray an aggregate lack of polished, scholarly writing/editing skills within the profession.