台灣家庭醫學雜誌參考文獻準確性研究

Citation errors are fairly common in medical journals. Accurate reference helps readers to access articles of interests and serves as an indicator for the quality of a journal. The prevalence of citation errors has never been reported for the Taiwan Journal of Family Medicine since its publication. The aim of this study is to examine the reference accuracy in the Taiwan Journal of Family Medicine in one year. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed based on the articles published in the Taiwan Journal of Family Medicine from Volume 25(3), 2015 to Volume 26(2), 2016. All the references included in PubMed were checked for accuracy, using the following six indices: author, title, journal abbreviations, year, volume, and pages. References were considered incorrect if there was any error in the six indices. Statistical analysis directed its attention to the frequency and percentage of the identified citation errors. Results: Of the total 26 articles, 448 of the 606 references were identified as being included in PubMed. Each article cited an average of 17.2 (SD 10.1) PubMed references. Among the 25 articles citing PubMed reference, one had 100% reference accuracy, and one 0%. Of all the references included in PubMed, the overall citation error rate was 27.0%, and 5.1% of the references had more than one citation error. The most common error appeared in author's name (32.5%), followed by title abbreviation (18.2%). Conclusion: Of the articles published in the Taiwan Journal of Family Medicine in the past one year, the rate of citation error concerning PubMed references can hardly be considered high; however, as the findings of the report suggests, there is still room of improvement for the journal's contributors, reviewers, and editors.