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Research Article: Citation and quotation accuracy in three anesthesia journals: a cross-sectional survey

Date Published: 2026-07-23

Abstract:
Citation and quotation errors are a known problem in the medical literature. However, quotation accuracy in anesthesiology has not been addressed before. We analyzed the final issue of 2017 of three anesthesiology journals: Anesthesia and Analgesia , Anesthesiology , and British Journal of Anaesthesia . Those issues included 122 manuscripts quoting 3,033 references. We randomly selected 729 references to journal articles or web-pages and retrieved 715 (or 98%). The overall rate of citation errors in journal articles was 16% (111 errors/697 checked journal articles), with 27% of the errors being major (e.g., publication year or first author's family name). The total number of quotation errors was 114 (or 16%), but most (68%) were major (the referenced article contradicted, failed to substantiate, or was unrelated to the authors’ assertions). Only 18 evaluated references were web-pages. In addition to three dead links, we were not able to evaluate seven of the remaining ones (registration required, or no indication where on the site to look for the exact piece of information). Comparing our results with previous publications, it is likely that the citation errors in anesthesiology were reduced over the past decades. However, the quotation error rate raises concerns: the rate is high and most of the errors are serious in nature. Joint efforts by all involved parties (authors, editors, and publishers) are called for, while the final solution will most likely be based on AI-guided tools. Moreover, more specific guidelines for citing web-pages should be implemented in the future.

Introduction:
Citation and quotation errors are a known problem in the medical literature. However, quotation accuracy in anesthesiology has not been addressed before.

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