Reference citations in iJACC: litera scripta manet.

ne of the most important but underappreciated and probably least discussed section of a paper is the list of references at the end. As Editors, we are occasionally reminded about how this section can raise issues for our decision-making. We are sometimes amazed at the rather superficial treatment accorded to this section; some papers come with too many and only remotely relevant citations and others come with too few citations, partially ignoring important previous work. References sometimes purport to be something they are not. More recently, we were even faced with a paper where we were admonished by an investigator who thought his seminal work was ignored in a paper we published. Creating the most suitable reference list is a delicate balance and there is not much discussion about it. Therefore, we address some of these issues as it pertains to iJACC. The purpose of references is to document the evidence that underlies a paper, to put the work in context of existing material, and to credit the work of existing authors, on which the paper is based (2). References form a critical component of scientific writing, and are coming under threat in the current era of cost containment, page restrictions, and an unprecedented proliferation of knowledge. Restrictions on the number of citations of primary papers in the current era is either overt, or originates from word count limits on manuscripts caused by page limitations. Much of what is written about references (especially in Instructions for Authors) relates to issues pertaining