Characterization of published errors in high-impact oncology journals

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 6627-6627
Author(s):  
A. Molckovsky ◽  
M. M. Vickers ◽  
P. A. Tang

6627 Background: Knowledge within oncology is disseminated primarily via peer-reviewed journals. The potential for dissemination of erroneous data exists, an issue that has not been explored in oncology. We evaluated errata from the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published between 2004–2007. Methods: Two authors independently abstracted data regarding errata and classified them as trivial (eg typographical error) or serious (eg change in outcome). For serious errors, the frequency of citation and error propagation was determined using the Science Citation Index in Web of Science. For publications cited > 150 times, a random sample of 10% were evaluated for error propagation. Canadian oncologists were surveyed regarding attitudes towards published errata. Results: There were 190 published errors, out of a total of 5118 papers, for an error rate of 4 ± 1% (SD) per year. 26/190 errors were identified as serious (14%). The median time from publication of the original article to publication of the erratum was 3.5 mo for trivial errors compared to 8.3 mo for serious errors (p = 0.03). A median of 1 error per article was reported for papers with trivial errors compared to a median of 2 errors per article with serious errors (p < 0.01). The 26 articles with serious errors were cited 256 times before publication of the error and 1056 times afterwards; of these, 96 and 527, respectively, were evaluated for propagation. Error propagation occurred in 14.6% of the citations published before error publication, and in 3.4% of citations published afterwards (p < 0.001). Survey results indicate that 30% of oncologists do not read the erratum section of journals, and that 45% of oncologists have only read the abstract of an article before citing it in a publication. Although 58% of oncologists have noticed errors in cancer publications, only 15% of these errors were reported. Conclusions: Error rates in high impact oncology journals average 4% per year, but this is likely an underestimate since errors noticed by readers are not consistently reported to the journal. The accuracy of articles submitted for publication is of utmost importance; while error propagation decreases after erratum publication, serious errors continue to be propagated in the literature. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Author(s):  
Neal Smith ◽  
Aaron Cumberledge

Due to the incremental nature of scientific discovery, scientific writing requires extensive referencing to the writings of others. The accuracy of this referencing is vital, yet errors do occur. These errors are called ‘quotation errors’. This paper presents the first assessment of quotation errors in high-impact general science journals. A total of 250 random citations were examined. The propositions being cited were compared with the referenced materials to verify whether the propositions could be substantiated by those materials. The study found a total error rate of 25%. This result tracks well with error rates found in similar studies in other academic fields. Additionally, several suggestions are offered that may help to decrease these errors and make similar studies more feasible in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Wilson López-López ◽  
Gonzalo Salas ◽  
Maribel Vega-Arce ◽  
Claudia A. Cornejo-Araya ◽  
Miguel Barboza-Palomino ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has sickened more than six million people worldwide. This context has led to an abundance of publications quickly since the beginning of the outbreak. In a few months, thousands of scientific papers have appeared. This article aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of the publications on COVID-19 in five high-impact journals indexed to the Web of Science Core Collection's Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) including The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature, and JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association. We found 169 documents associated with the search criteria. The findings indicate that China, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the most represented countries in these publications, The Lancet is the journal with the highest number of contributions with 66% of documents, and the University of Hong Kong leads the ranking of institutions. Future bibliometric and scientometric studies on COVID-19 should provide updated information to analyse other relevant indicators in this field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1411-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Bislick ◽  
William D. Hula

Purpose This retrospective analysis examined group differences in error rate across 4 contextual variables (clusters vs. singletons, syllable position, number of syllables, and articulatory phonetic features) in adults with apraxia of speech (AOS) and adults with aphasia only. Group differences in the distribution of error type across contextual variables were also examined. Method Ten individuals with acquired AOS and aphasia and 11 individuals with aphasia participated in this study. In the context of a 2-group experimental design, the influence of 4 contextual variables on error rate and error type distribution was examined via repetition of 29 multisyllabic words. Error rates were analyzed using Bayesian methods, whereas distribution of error type was examined via descriptive statistics. Results There were 4 findings of robust differences between the 2 groups. These differences were found for syllable position, number of syllables, manner of articulation, and voicing. Group differences were less robust for clusters versus singletons and place of articulation. Results of error type distribution show a high proportion of distortion and substitution errors in speakers with AOS and a high proportion of substitution and omission errors in speakers with aphasia. Conclusion Findings add to the continued effort to improve the understanding and assessment of AOS and aphasia. Several contextual variables more consistently influenced breakdown in participants with AOS compared to participants with aphasia and should be considered during the diagnostic process. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9701690


2013 ◽  
pp. 129-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Kurakova ◽  
L. Tsvetkova ◽  
O. Eremchenko

The paper analyses the publications of Russian authors in various fields of economics indexed in Web of Science and Russian Science Citation Index. The authors claim that the scientometric parameters are only in a limited way applicable in evaluating the performance of expert and thesis boards in economics in Russia. The authors also put forward the approaches in order to improve Russia’s positions in the international citations indexes in economics.


Author(s):  
Nikolay Mazov ◽  
◽  
Vadim Gureyev ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

Twenty two science Russian periodicals in informatics and library studies are selected for the bibliometrical analysis of key journal indicators, including publication activity of the same journals’ editorial staff. For the first time for domestic journals, the study reveals hidden self-citation when editorial members include links to their journal from other publications. The available instruments of scientometrical databases, including Web of Science and Scopus, and the national system Russian Science Citation Index do not enable to identify this form of self-citation. The mentioned manipulations are aimed at boosting journal rating. In several cases, intensive and unjustified citation by journals’ editorial staff in other periodicals which we consider the violation of publication ethical principles, is revealed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (05) ◽  
pp. 343-343

We have to report marginal changes in the empirical type I error rates for the cut-offs 2/3 and 4/7 of Table 4, Table 5 and Table 6 of the paper “Influence of Selection Bias on the Test Decision – A Simulation Study” by M. Tamm, E. Cramer, L. N. Kennes, N. Heussen (Methods Inf Med 2012; 51: 138 –143). In a small number of cases the kind of representation of numeric values in SAS has resulted in wrong categorization due to a numeric representation error of differences. We corrected the simulation by using the round function of SAS in the calculation process with the same seeds as before. For Table 4 the value for the cut-off 2/3 changes from 0.180323 to 0.153494. For Table 5 the value for the cut-off 4/7 changes from 0.144729 to 0.139626 and the value for the cut-off 2/3 changes from 0.114885 to 0.101773. For Table 6 the value for the cut-off 4/7 changes from 0.125528 to 0.122144 and the value for the cut-off 2/3 changes from 0.099488 to 0.090828. The sentence on p. 141 “E.g. for block size 4 and q = 2/3 the type I error rate is 18% (Table 4).” has to be replaced by “E.g. for block size 4 and q = 2/3 the type I error rate is 15.3% (Table 4).”. There were only minor changes smaller than 0.03. These changes do not affect the interpretation of the results or our recommendations.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1338
Author(s):  
Morgan E. Meissner ◽  
Emily J. Julik ◽  
Jonathan P. Badalamenti ◽  
William G. Arndt ◽  
Lauren J. Mills ◽  
...  

Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) accumulates fewer mutations during replication than HIV type 1 (HIV-1). Advanced studies of HIV-2 mutagenesis, however, have historically been confounded by high background error rates in traditional next-generation sequencing techniques. In this study, we describe the adaptation of the previously described maximum-depth sequencing (MDS) technique to studies of both HIV-1 and HIV-2 for the ultra-accurate characterization of viral mutagenesis. We also present the development of a user-friendly Galaxy workflow for the bioinformatic analyses of sequencing data generated using the MDS technique, designed to improve replicability and accessibility to molecular virologists. This adapted MDS technique and analysis pipeline were validated by comparisons with previously published analyses of the frequency and spectra of mutations in HIV-1 and HIV-2 and is readily expandable to studies of viral mutation across the genomes of both viruses. Using this novel sequencing pipeline, we observed that the background error rate was reduced 100-fold over standard Illumina error rates, and 10-fold over traditional unique molecular identifier (UMI)-based sequencing. This technical advancement will allow for the exploration of novel and previously unrecognized sources of viral mutagenesis in both HIV-1 and HIV-2, which will expand our understanding of retroviral diversity and evolution.


Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 375
Author(s):  
John Koussiouris ◽  
Nikita Looby ◽  
Melanie Anderson ◽  
Vathany Kulasingam ◽  
Vinod Chandran

Metabolomics investigates a broad range of small molecules, allowing researchers to understand disease-related changes downstream of the genome and proteome in response to external environmental stimuli. It is an emerging technology that holds promise in identifying biomarkers and informing the practice of precision medicine. In this review, we summarize the studies that have examined endogenous metabolites in patients with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or mass spectrometry (MS) and were published through 26 January 2021. A standardized protocol was used for extracting data from full-text articles identified by searching OVID Medline ALL, OVID Embase, OVID Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and BIOSIS Citation Index in Web of Science. Thirty-two studies were identified, investigating various sample matrices and employing a wide variety of methods for each step of the metabolomics workflow. The vast majority of studies identified metabolites, mostly amino acids and lipids that may be associated with psoriasis diagnosis and activity. Further exploration is needed to identify and validate metabolomic biomarkers that can accurately and reliably predict which psoriasis patients will develop psoriatic arthritis, differentiate psoriatic arthritis patients from patients with other inflammatory arthritides and measure psoriatic arthritis activity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 152 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S131-S132
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hogan ◽  
Beena Umar ◽  
Mohamed Alhamar ◽  
Kathleen Callahan ◽  
Linoj Samuel

Abstract Objectives There are few papers that characterize types of errors in microbiology laboratories and scant research demonstrating the effects of interventions on microbiology lab errors. This study aims to categorize types of culture reporting errors found in microbiology labs and to document the error rates before and after interventions designed to reduce errors and improve overall laboratory quality. Methods To improve documentation of error incidence, a self-reporting system was changed to an automatic reporting system. Errors were categorized into five types Gram stain (misinterpretations), identification (incorrect analysis), set up labeling (incorrect patient labels), procedures (not followed), and miscellaneous. Error rates were tracked according to technologist, and technologists were given real-time feedback by a manager. Error rates were also monitored in the daily quality meeting and frequently detected errors were discussed at staff meetings. Technologists attended a year-end review with a manager to improve their performance. To maintain these changes, policies were developed to monitor technologist error rate and to define corrective measures. If a certain number of errors per month was reached, technologists were required to undergo retraining by a manager. If a technologist failed to correct any error according to protocol, they were also potentially subject to corrective measures. Results In 2013, we recorded 0.5 errors per 1,000 tests. By 2018, we recorded only 0.1 errors per 1,000 tests, an 80% decrease. The yearly culture volume from 2013 to 2018 increased by 32%, while the yearly error rate went from 0.05% per year to 0.01% per year, a statistically significant decrease (P = .0007). Conclusion This study supports the effectiveness of the changes implemented to decrease errors in culture reporting. By tracking errors in real time and using a standardized process that involved timely follow-up, technologists were educated on error prevention. This practice increased safety awareness in our micro lab.


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