Providing proper citation may seem to be an easy chore compared to bench science, yet, this simple practice can be a source of problems if done incorrectly. Miguel Roig, from St. John's University, lays out 24 guidelines for preventing plagiarism. Number 14 on the list stresses the importance of proper citation.
"Guideline 14: Authors are strongly urged to double-check their citations. Specifically, authors should always ensure that each reference notation appearing in the body of the manuscript corresponds to the correct citation listed in the reference section and vice versa and that each source listed in the reference section has been cited at some point in the manuscript. In addition, authors should also ensure that all elements of a citation (e.g., spelling of authors’ names, volume number of journal, pagination) are derived directly from the original paper, rather than from a citation that appears on a secondary source. Finally, authors should ensure that credit is given to those authors who first reported the phenomenon being studied."
