Methods sections often lack critical details needed to reproduce an experiment, and the practice of citing previous papers instead of describing the methods in detail may contribute to this problem
Analysis of >750 papers shows that >90% of papers use at least one shortcut citation, that these significantly impair reconstruction of the original method, and that <25% of journals have policies relating to previously described methods
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In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology : http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002562
Article Title: Shortcut citations in the methods section: Frequency, problems, and strategies for responsible reuse
Author Countries : Germany, France
Funding: This study was completed through a participant guided, learn-by doing meta-research course funded by the Berlin University Alliance within the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments (301_TrainIndik to TLW). VK received salary support from the Berlin University Alliance grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PLOS Biology
Commentary/editorial
Not applicable
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.