THE QUALITY OF CITATIONS IN MAJOR INTERNATIONAL OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY JOURNALS

OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine the error rate in references in a rticles published in three major international journals in obstetrics and gynecology. STUDY DESIGN: All issues (excluding supplements) for t he year 1995 of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology were examined. Refe rences were numbered sequentially, and 50 randomly selected references from each journal were checked against the original for accuracy. RES ULTS: Errors were found in the majority of references. The lowest erro r rate was 55.6% from the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstet rics and Gynaecology, and the highest was 66.7% from the British Journ al of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The difference between journals was not statistically significant. The most frequent types of error were i n the title of the article or in the authors' names. CONCLUSIONS: Erro r rates in major international journals in obstetrics and gynecology a re high, and care must be taken by authors and journal staff to improv e the quality of published articles.