국내 주요 산부인과 학술회지에 인용된 참고문헌의 정확성

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of references in articles published in four major Korean journals in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Methods: All articles for the year 1997 of Korean Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Korean Journal of Gynecologic Oncology and Colposcopy, Korean Journal of Perinatology, and Korean Journal of Fertility and Sterility were examined. 60 articles[15 articles per journal] were randomly selected. Each reference was verified either from the original source or from other indexing tools if the original was unavailable. Reference accuracy in the selected articles was evaluated and types of citation errors were analyzed. Results: The references from 60 articles were 1264, and 1060 references were evaluated for reference accuracy. Overall rate of inaccurate reference was 56.0%. The lowest inaccuracy rate was 52.6% from Korean Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the highest was 58.8% from Korean Journal of Perinatology. The rate of reference inaccuracy was 58.3% in foreign references and 35.0% in domestic references. The types of citation errors were ranked as followed : inaccurate author, 302[50.8%]; inaccurate title, 300[50.5%]; inaccurate journal, 90[15.2%]; inaccurate page, 45[7.6%]; inaccurate volume, 43[7.2%]; inaccurate year, 18[3%]. Conclusion: This study showed that rate of inaccurate reference in four major Korean journals in Obstetrics and Gynecology was fairly high. It is necessary that contributors and editors should make more efforts to enhance the reference accuracy.