Published errors and erratums in library & information science journals

Abstract

Purpose: When some information is missed or unintentional mistakes are happened in a published paper, the authors or the editors would write an erratum to correct and make the information reliable. The current research investigates corrections to the papers published in library & in information science (LIS) journals during 2006-2015. Methodology: The current study was an applied research conducted through a descriptive and correlational survey method using scientometric indicators. The sample of the study comprised of 212 erratums published in 47 Web of Science-indexed LIS journals. Results: Findings of the study revealed that during the time span of this research, 4.51 corrections were published in LIS journals on average. Studied journals were found to have the correction rate of %0.69. The mean time from publication of the article to the corresponding erratum was 8.7 months. The results also showed that the highest share of errors in LIS journals were occurred in authors’ information (%27.03), followed by references (%14.16), tables (%12.45), figures (%6.87) and introduction (%6.44), respectively. Moreover, the results of running a series of Spearman’s Rank Correlation tests revealed no statistically significant relationship between the journals’ impact factors and their correction rates. Conclusion: Correcting the unintentional mistakes in scholarly articles is an ethical responsibility of researchers. Academic journals should be careful to the process of peer-review and establish clear correction policies.

Keywords

• correction
• erratum
• retracted articles
• peer-review process