The Practical Effects of Errors in Reference Lists in Nursing Research Journals

BACKGROUND:Previous studies have noted the prevalence of errors in journal reference lists, including nursing journals, but an in-depth study of nursing research journals has not been reported. OBJECTIVES:The purpose of this study was to determine the number and types of errors in nursing research journal reference lists. METHOD:A stratified random sample of 262 references from three nursing research journals was obtained. References were compared with the actual articles, books, and chapters cited, or with photocopies obtained via interlibrary loan. Error rates were calculated. RESULTS:The overall error rate was 45.8%; 38.3% of all references contained at least one major error, and 13.8% of all references contained at least one minor error. CONCLUSIONS:The overall rate of reference errors falls within the range exhibited by recent studies of the medical and dental literature but exceeds the rates found in studies of nursing journals and veterinary medicine journals. Researchers need to consider the number and types of errors involved when using reference lists in their research.