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.

中文翻译：

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一般科学期刊中的引用错误

由于科学发现的渐进性，科学写作需要大量参考他人的著作。这种引用的准确性至关重要，但确实会发生错误。这些错误称为“引用错误”。本文首次对具有高影响力的普通科学期刊中的引用错误进行评估。总共检查了 250 次随机引用。将引用的命题与参考材料进行比较，以验证这些命题是否可以被这些材料证实。研究发现总错误率为 25%。这一结果与在其他学术领域的类似研究中发现的错误率很好地吻合。此外，还提供了一些建议，可能有助于减少这些错误并使类似的研究在未来更加可行。