Received: December 18, 2010
Accepted: February 16, 2011
Ref:
Adhikari P, Bhandari S. Accuracy of references in Internet Journal of Medical Update. Internet J Med Update. 2011 Jul;6(2):47-9.

ACCURACY OF REFERENCES IN INTERNET JOURNAL OF MEDICAL UPDATE

Prakash Adhikari* MS and Sukmit Bhandari** BSc

*Consultant, Department of ENT and Head and Neck Surgery, GMS Memorial Academy of ENT and Head and Neck Studies, TU Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
**Instructor, Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, Nakhu, Lalitpur, Nepal

(Corresponding Author: Dr. Prakash Adhikari, Department of ENT and Head and Neck Surgery, GMS Memorial Academy of ENT and Head and Neck Studies, TU Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal; Tel: +9779851015002; Fax: +97714414191; Email: drprakashadhikari@hotmail.com)

ABSTRACT

This study was done to observe the accuracy of references in articles published in Internet Journal of Medical Update (IJMU). Sixty references were randomly selected from IJMU (Volume 5, Number 2, July 2010, Volume 4, Number 2, July 2009 and Volume 4, Number 1, January 2009). The instructions for authors of this journal were looked carefully. All the references were compared with the original for accuracy, using the following six elements: authors name; journal name as per Index Medicus; year; volume; and page numbers. References were considered incorrect if there was an error in any of these six elements. Statistical analysis was done by using frequency and percentage. Ten percent references in Internet Journal of Medical Update were inaccurate. Most common errors were author’s name and title of the article. Author’s names were found to be incorrect in 5.0% references while title of the article was found to be incorrect in 3.3%. Least common error was found in writing the journal name (either incorrect abbreviations or incorrect instructions or punctuation errors) in (1.7%). Inaccuracies of references are also found in the Internet Journal of Medical Update. The majority of errors in IJMU are avoidable. So, the authors, editors and the reviewers have to check for any errors seriously before publication in the journal.

KEY WORDS: References; Accuracy; IJMU