The Accuracy of Reference Lists in Five Experimental Psychology Journals

Reference lists appended to published journals are of critical importance to readers of academic literature. They allow readers to retrieve cited sources, either to increase their own knowledge or to substantiate the authors' claims, and in so doing help to establish the judgment and credibility of the authors (M. F. McLellan et al, 1992). However, erroneous references detract from the intended function of reference lists by impeding retrieval searches and by providing misleading bibliographic information (G. de Lacey et al, 1985; McLellan et al, 1992). The present study aims to assess the accuracy of reference lists in five experimental psychology journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1999 ( Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General). Perhaps the most disturbing result from this study is the finding that authors were incorrectly cited in 12% of reference list citations, with errors in the initials of the authors being the most common. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)