The Comedy of Errors: Assessing Citation Help in Databases

Mary Van Ullen and Jane Kessler, University at

Albany

Database Citation Help

• Help files– General information– Example citations

• Preformatted citations– Included as part of the bib record, present in all

styles supported by the database• Citations-on-demand– Generated when user specifies records and a

citation style

Errors in Ten Reviewed CitationsDatabase Errors per Citation

Project MUSE 5.0

Wilson Education Full-Text 4.8

Criminal Justice Periodicals Index

4.1

Credo Reference 3.6

EBSCO Academic Search Complete

3.4

Scopus 2.0

CSA Sociological Abstracts 1.9

ArticleFirst 1.8

Type of Error Number Percentage

Retrieval statement 95 36%

Syntax 53 20%

Punctuation 31 12%

Italics/underlining 30 11%

Capitalization 28 10%

Names 21 8%

Date 8 3%

Total 266 100%

Example of Retrieval Statement Error

APA Format for article with doi assigned: Last name, First initial. (Year). Article title. Journal Title, volume(issue), page range. doi:

Bibliographic record from Project MUSE showing doi:

Arnoldian Humanism, or Amnesia and Autobiography in the Schwarzenegger Action Film

Grady, Frank. Cinema Journal, 42, Number 2, Winter 2003, pp. 41-56 (Article)

DOI: 10.1353/cj.2003.0003

APA example from “How to Cite Articles in Project MUSE” Example: Grady, Frank. (2003). Arnoldian Humanism, or Amnesia and Autobiography in theSchwarzenegger Action Film. Cinema Journal, 42(2), 41-56. Retrieved September 4, 2004 from Project MUSE database.

Programming Error from Project Muse

Bibliographic record:Poaching on Men's Philosophies of Rhetoric: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rhetorical Theory by WomenDonawerth, Jane, 1947-Philosophy and Rhetoric, Volume 33, Number 3, 2000, pp. 243-258 (Article)DOI: 10.1353/par.2000.0017 MLA Citation generated:Donawerth, Jane, 1947-. "Poaching on Men's Philosophies of Rhetoric: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rhetorical Theory by Women." Philosophy and Rhetoric 33.3 (2000): 243-258. Project MUSE. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 3 Apr. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Findings

• Expecting substantial improvement from 2005 study

• Overall error rate declined from 4.4 errors per citation to 3.4 errors per citation

• In both studies retrieval statement was largest source of error

Recommendations

• Warn students!• Include citation feature in database evaluation• Talk to vendors– Many errors due to inattention to detail (Help

files) or sloppy programming

All’s well that ends well…