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Commentary: Peer Review and Incomplete Reference Lists

The well-known shortcomings and poor reliability of peer review (Colin de Gluocester, 2013; Ho et al., 2013; Newton, 2010; Onitilo et al., 2013; Smith, 2010) as well as the proverbial power and almost royal unaccountability of many editors (Newton, 2010; Smith, 2008) lead me to describe here an instructive experience. In June 2013, I submitted to the American Journal of Medical Genetics the short note “Missing References Are to Be Supplied” intended to be published as a Letter to the Editor. In such a note I pointed out how each of four recent articles, describing chromosome rearrangements so unusual that only as few as five cases were on record, failed to cite one or a few relevant references published in prestigious PubMed journals such as American Journal of Medical Genetics, Human Genetics, European Journal of Medical Genetics, and Clinical Genetics. Despite this, my letter was rejected with the arguments that “it is not obligatory for an author to include all potentially relevant citations in any given manuscript, but is instead a matter or judgment” and that it was unclear “. . . that these omissions led to errors in the conclusions of the articles” (both the submitted and the rejection letters are available upon request). Although it is certainly true that citations in research reports are a matter of judgment, the point is whether such a judgment is correct or not. Besides, we all have an obligation to acknowledge pertinent antecedents by means of citing meticulously (e.g., Campanario, 2004; Shamoo and Resnik, 2009). Incidentally, a greater transparency in both original and review articles would be achieved inasmuch as the authors describe how they select the cited references (Mertens and Baethge, 2011). In turn, this practice may diminish