Quotation errors in general science journals | Zendy

Neal J. Smith | Zendy; Aaron Cumberledge | Zendy

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Quotation errors in general science journals

Author(s) -

Neal J. Smith,

Aaron Cumberledge

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

proceedings of the royal society a mathematical physical and engineering sciences

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

eISSN - 1471-2946

pISSN - 1364-5021

DOI - 10.1098/rspa.2020.0538

Subject(s) - computer science , random error , systematic error , word error rate , statistics , data science , information retrieval , mathematics , natural language processing

Due to the incremental nature of scientific discovery, scientific writing requires extensive referencing to the writings of others. The accuracy of this referencing is vital, yet errors do occur. These errors are called ‘quotation errors’. This paper presents the first assessment of quotation errors in high-impact general science journals. A total of 250 random citations were examined. The propositions being cited were compared with the referenced materials to verify whether the propositions could be substantiated by those materials. The study found a total error rate of 25%. This result tracks well with error rates found in similar studies in other academic fields. Additionally, several suggestions are offered that may help to decrease these errors and make similar studies more feasible in the future.

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