Table 1 Possible outcomes and problems of reporting inaccurate citations using current methods
From: MyCites: a proposal to mark and report inaccurate citations in scholarly publications
Method | Possible outcomes | Problems |
|---|---|---|
1. Contacting the editor | • Publication of a corrigendum • No correction, editor contacting authors with a note to be more careful in the future • Being ignored | • Burdensome for the reporter and the editoral team • Impractical to do for every single inaccuracy |
2. Submission of a commentary/letter | • Acceptance of commentary/letter and publication of a corrigendum • Acceptance of commentary/letter and publication of a response commentary/letter by the citing authors in reaction to the first letter with/without the publication of a corrigendum • Acceptance of commentary/letter without any further response from the citing authors, or reaction from the editors • Rejection of the commentary/letter | • Burdensome for the reporter and the editorial team • Impractical to do for every single inaccuracy |
3. Email corresponding authors | • Submission of a corrigendum by authors and having the inaccuracy corrected • Submission of a corrigendum and having it rejected by the editors • Being ignored | • The reporter may remain out of the communication loop • The inaccuracy may never be reported to the journal |
4. Post on social media | • Submission of a corrigendum by authors and having it corrected • Submission of a corrigendum and having it rejected by the editors • Being ignored • Having the comment deleted | • Complicated to distinguish genuine report from trolls • Comments can be deleted by account owners • Scientists who are not on social media will not be aware of it • Exposure to non-experts |
5. Use PubPeer | • Editors of the journals with a paid subscription will get a notification. They may react with/without a corrigendum, or ignore the report • Citing authors act on the reported inaccuracy and submit a corrigendum which may be accepted or rejected • Citing authors ignore the report • Other researchers including the citing/cited authors may make further comments or ignore it altogether | • Prose comments do not appear in the text • Comments are not linked to citations • Cited authors are not notified • Not fully open and free for all users • Possible to make anonymous comments |
6. Current annotation platforms | • Editors of the journals who wish to be informed will get a notification. They may react with/without a corrigendum, or ignore the report • Citing authors act on the reported inaccuracy and submit a corrigendum which may be accepted or rejected • Citing authors ignore the report • Other researchers including the citing/cited authors may make further comments or ignore it altogether | • Comments are not visible across platforms • Comments are not linked to citations • Cited authors are not notified • Not possible to create an index of inaccurate citations |