Manuscript Referencing Errors and Their Impact on Shaping Current Evidence

Exploring plagiarism

ABSTRACT

Plagiarism is a common issue in academic and professional communities. This article discusses ways to avoid plagiarism by identifying valuable resources, such as appropriate paraphrasing, creative work organizing, and new technology. Understanding copyright law safeguards is critical to avoiding plagiarism.

Reporting quality of abstracts and inconsistencies with full text articles in pediatric orthopedic publications

BACKGROUND

Abstracts should provide a brief yet comprehensive reporting of all components of a manuscript. Inaccurate reporting may mislead readers and impact citation practices. It was our goal to investigate the reporting quality of abstracts of interventional observational studies in three major pediatric orthopedic journals and to analyze any reporting inconsistencies between those abstracts and their corresponding full-text articles.

METHODS

We selected a sample of 55 abstracts and their full-text articles published between 2018 and 2022. Included articles were primary therapeutic research investigating the results of treatments or interventions. Abstracts were scrutinized for reporting quality and inconsistencies with their full-text versions with a 22-itemized checklist. The reporting quality of titles was assessed by a 3-items categorical scale.

RESULTS

In 48 (87%) of articles there were abstract reporting inaccuracies related to patient demographics. The study's follow-up and complications were not reported in 21 (38%) of abstracts each. Most common inconsistencies between the abstracts and full-text articles were related to reporting of inclusion or exclusion criteria in 39 (71%) and study correlations in 27 (49%) of articles. Reporting quality of the titles was insufficient in 33 (60%) of articles.

CONCLUSIONS

In our study we found low reporting quality of abstracts and noticeable inconsistencies with full-text articles, especially regarding inclusion or exclusion criteria and study correlations. While the current sample is likely not representative of overall pediatric orthopedic literature, we recommend that authors, reviewers, and editors ensure abstracts are reported accurately, ideally following the appropriate reporting guidelines, and that they double check that there are no inconsistencies between abstracts and full text articles. To capture essential study information, journals should also consider increasing abstract word limits.

Quotation Errors in High-Impact-Factor Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Journals

Inappropriate referencing of the existing literature has the potential to propagate false information. Quotation errors are defined as citations in which the referenced article fails to substantiate the authors' claims. The aim of this study was to determine the rate of quotation errors in high-impact general orthopaedic and sports medicine journals and to determine whether there are article or journal-related factors that are related to the rate of inaccuracies.

METHODS

A total of 250 citations from the 5 orthopaedic and sports medicine journals with the highest impact factors in 2019 (per Journal Citation Reports) were chosen using a random sequence generator. Reviewers rated the chosen citations by comparing the claims made by the authors with the data and conclusions of the referenced source to determine whether quotation errors were present. Logistic regression was utilized to assess for article- and journal-related factors related to the rate of quotation errors.

RESULTS

The overall quotation error rate was 13.6%. A total of 2.8% of the claims were completely unsubstantiated. The number of quotation errors did not significantly differ between the included journals. Single citations were significantly more likely than string citations to result in citations that could not be fully substantiated (χ2 = 4.57; odds ratio = 2.22; 95% confidence interval = 1.06 to 4.66; p = 0.03). No relationship was found between the rate of quotation errors and the total number of citations in the article, study type, or the graded level of evidence of the article.

CONCLUSIONS

Quotation errors in high-impact factor orthopaedic and sports medicine journals are common. This is particularly important given the higher likelihood that studies in these journals are cited elsewhere, thus propagating the inaccuracies. Efforts from both authors and journals are needed to reduce quotation errors in the orthopaedic literature.

The Pioneering Role of Sci in Post Publication Public Peer Review (P4R)

Scientists observe, discover, justify and eventually share their findings with the scientific community. Dissemination is an integral aspect of scientific discovery, since discoveries which go unnoticed have no or little impact on science. Today, peer review is part of this process of scientific dissemination as it contributes proactively to the quality of a scientific article. As the numbers of scientific journals and scientific articles published therein are increasing steadily, processes such as the single-blind or double-blind peer review are facing a near collapse situation. In fact, these traditional forms of reviewing have reached their limits and, because of this, are also increasingly considered as unfair, sloppy, superficial and even biased. In this manuscript, we propose forms of post-publication public peer review (P4R) as valuable alternatives to the traditional blind peer review system. We describe how the journal Sci has explored such an approach and provide first empirical evidence of the benefits and also challenges, such a P4R approach faces.