Data Accuracy in Citation Studies.

The reference librarian depends heavily on citation accuracy, not only in Science Citation Index but also in the expansion of a search through use of the bibliography of a relevant paper. How confidently can one make use of such sources without verifica tion? Two recent papers using Science Ci tation Index as a source for citation counts have reported problems with citation accu racy.1'2 Some of these may well be entry errors, but suspecting that the great major ity were in fact the result of the author supplied data, we decided to take a quick look at citation accuracy. Only two specific studies of citation ac curacy were found, both dealing with med ical publications. Goodrich and Roland3 found that "among 2,195 reference cita tions published during 1975 in 10 major U.S. medical journals, 634 (29%) were found to be erroneous on direct checking of the original source." Key and Roland4 verified citations prior to publication in a single journal over a thirteen-month pe riod. Of 1,867 citations 1,005 (54 percent) were incorrect and 115 (6 percent) could not be verified.