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Onwuegbuzie, Hwang, Frels, and Slate (2011) reported the findings of Onwuegbuzie and Hwang (2012, 2013), who examined the frequency and characteristics of violations to the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide (APA, 2010) that occurred in the reference lists of 131 manuscripts submitted to Research in the Schools over a 6-year period. Findings revealed that authors committed more than 12 reference list errors per manuscript, on average (M = 12.83, SD = 7.25). Further, a total of 466 unique reference list errors were identified, which yielded 14 reference list error themes. However, it could be questioned whether the same reference list error rates would be observed among manuscripts submitted to Tier I journals. Consequently, in the present editorial, we replicate and extend their work by using mixed analysis techniques to examine the reference list error rate of 83 manuscripts submitted to the highest ranked educational journal, Educational Researcher, over a 3.5-year period. Findings revealed that Educational Researcher authors committed more than 14 reference list errors per manuscript, on average (M = 14.25, SD = 8.05). Also, a total of 324 unique reference list errors were identified, which yielded the same aforementioned 14 reference list error themes. A multiple regression analysis revealed that every author of a manuscript was associated with an increase of 2.40 reference list errors, on average. These findings support the hypothesis that journals with the highest impact factors also have manuscripts submitted to their journals that have high rates of reference list errors. Implications are discussed.
In a previous editorial, Onwuegbuzie, Hwang, Frels, and Slate (2011) reported the findings of Onwuegbuzie and Hwang (2012) (see also, Onwuegbuzie & Hwang, 2013), who examined the frequency and characteristics of violations to the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide (APA, 2010) that occurred in the reference lists of manuscripts (hereafter referred to as reference list errors) initially submitted (i.e., unpublished manuscripts) to Research in the Schools (RITS), a nationally/internationally refereed journal, as well as the relationships between reference list errors and selected manuscript variables (e.g., number of authors, editor decision [e.g., reject, accept]). Onwuegbuzie and Hwang (2012, 2013) used mixed research techniques to examine 131 manuscripts submitted to RITS over a 6-year period (i.e., 2004-2010). These researchers identified a total of 466 unique...