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 Citations
Database
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%
8
3%
266
100%
Date
Total
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 the
Schwarzenegger 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 NineteenthCentury Rhetorical Theory by Women
Donawerth, Jane, 1947Philosophy 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…