• bob_lemon@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    6 months ago

    There was a specific number that was repeated across a lot of papers in my field, always citing the same source.

    That source did have the number, but it cited another paper for it, which itself cited yet an older paper. Im not sure where the citations went bad, but that last paper for not actually contain the value everyone waschain-attributing to it.

    The number was fortunately still correct though (and people would have noticed pretty quickly if it wasn’t).

    • Jackcooper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      6 months ago

      I was recently cited for quoting a statistic. Thankfully the statistic was accurate.

      Now I am the xerox of a xerox.

    • 5too@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 months ago

      Is that a situation where you can write up your analysis, report the number as correct… and start getting cited in place of the paper with broken attributions?