[Bibliographic errors in Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas. A retrospective study of the year 1995].
OBJECTIVE
To determine the accuracy of bibliographic citation in Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas (REED) and compare it with other Spanish and international journals.


METHODS
We reviewed all 1995 volumes of the REED and randomly selected 100 references from these volumes. Nine citations of non-journal articles were excluded and the remaining 91 citations were carefully scrutinized. Each original article was compared for author's name, title of article, name of journal, volume number, year of publication and pages.


RESULTS
Some type of error was detected in 61.6% of the references and on 3 occasions (3.3%) impeded finding to the original article. Errors were found in authors (37.3%); article title (16.4%), pages (6.6%), journal title (4.4%), volume (2.2%) and year (1%). A single error was found in 42 citations, 2 were found in 13 and 3 were found in 1.


CONCLUSIONS
REED's rate of error in references is comparable to the rates of other spanish and international journals. Authors should exercise more care in preparing bibliographies and should invest more effort in verification of quoted references.
Acea Nebril
B
B
Servicio de Cirugía General A, Hospital Juan Canalejo, La Coruña.
Gómez Freijoso
C
C
D001634:Bibliographies as Topic; D005762:Gastroenterology; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain