A case study in reference list accuracy

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to replicate and extend research on reference list accuracy to determine whether the same phenomenon exists across disciplines and whether similar conclusions can be drawn.

Design/methodology/approach

Three hypotheses were tested and verified to determine consistency of findings from previous studies and across disciplines. A fourth hypothesis was introduced to investigate the impact of an increasing number of citations to internet resources.

Findings

The study demonstrates some similar patterns to previously reported research. However, the existence of errors in references to journal articles usually did not prevent locating an article. More significantly for fashion scholarship, there were a higher number of citations to URLs than journal articles. Given the high rate of irretrievability for the URL citations in the study, this may have a negative impact on future intellectual contributions.

Research limitations/implications

If decreasing internet content persistence continues, scholarship credibility will be increasingly difficult to maintain. Further research should investigate the retrievability of websites if URLs are incorrectly referenced, given other information provided in the references.

Practical implications

Not only should authors submit the first page or title page of all referenced print materials to editors for reference list accuracy verification, print‐outs of referenced web sites including the URL and access date should be provided.

Originality/value

Irretrievability rates of citations to internet URLs were found to be substantially higher than those of journal articles. This should be of concern to all authors of scholarly works.

Citation

Gatten, R. (2010), "A case study in reference list accuracy", New Library World, Vol. 111 No. 1/2, pp. 16-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801011015658