Open AccessViews of Reference List Accuracy from Social Work Journal Editors and Published Authors
Author(s) -
Scott E. Wilks,
Christina A. Spivey
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
advances in social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2331-4125
pISSN - 1527-8565
DOI - 10.18060/66
Subject(s) - likert scale , publishing , social work , scale (ratio) , work (physics) , psychology , medical education , applied psychology , medicine , political science , engineering , mechanical engineering , developmental psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , law
Objective:The study’s purpose was to answer two research questions: (1) Inthe opinion of social work journal editors, how important is reference list accuracy?and (2)Who is primarily responsible for the accuracy of reference lists published insocial work journals? Method: A sample of 119 authors and 26 journal editors wassurveyed to ascertain their views on the above questions and additional items.Results: Regarding the importance of reference list accuracy, editors’ responses(Likert scale) averaged between moderately and extremely important. Fifty-threepercent of responding editors and 36.5% of authors reported that responsibility isshared between the editor/staff and manuscript authors; the remaining 47% and63.5%, respectively, responded that responsibility falls upon manuscript authors.Responses from authors, mostly educators, revealed a greater-than-moderateimportance (Likert scale) given to instructing students on the accurate constructionof reference lists. Implications for social work education and journal publishing arediscussed.