Reference List Inaccuracies: A Four-Decade Comparison

Errors in the reference lists of journal articles have been reported in studies conducted on journals issued in the 1970s and 1980s. On the average, faults and errors were found to occur in about 40% of the entries. The Personnel and Guidance Journal and a journal related to information science were the data sources for a four-decade study. Results indicated that error rates were lower in the mid-1950s in this sample but were very similar in the last three decades and similar to rates found in other studies. One or more errors occurred in about 40 to 45 of any 100 entries sampled from reference lists. Implications are explored.