References in Indian Pediatrics: authors need to be accurate.

To determine the accuracy of references published in Indian Pediatrics, we reviewed the reference lists appended to the original articles published in Indian Pediatrics during the year 2002 (volume 39) for citation and quotation accuracy. A total of 176 references out of 322 cited in 17 original articles could be retrieved from available resources. Errors of citation were found in 69 (39.27 percent) references while errors of quotation were found in 15 (8.6 percent) references. The most common errors were those in the name of authors and title of the article. Contributors should make serious efforts to check the accuracy of the references cited in their manuscripts.