[Errors in Peruvian medical journals references].
BACKGROUND
References are fundamental in our studies; an adequate selection is asimportant as an adequate description.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the number of errors in a sample of references found in Peruvian medical journals.


METHODS
We reviewed 515 scientific papers references selected by systematic randomized sampling and corroborated reference information with the original document or its citation in Pubmed, LILACS or SciELO-Peru.


RESULTS
We found errors in 47,6% (245) of the references, identifying 372 types of errors; the most frequent were errors in presentation style (120), authorship (100) and title (100), mainly due to spelling mistakes (91).


CONCLUSIONS
References error percentage was high, varied and multiple. We suggest systematic revision of references in the editorial process as well as to extend the discussion on this theme.


BACKGROUND
references, periodicals, research, bibliometrics.
Huamaní
Charles
C
Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú.
Pacheco-Romero
José
J
D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D010568:Peru; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards*; D014956:Writing / Q000592:standards*