Medical Student Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Introduction: Pioneering Norwegian neurosurgeon Vilhelm Magnus (1872 – 1929) described the first use of radiation for the treatment of an arteriovenous malformation in his book Bidrag til hjernechirurgiens klinik og resultater, which was published in Norwegian in 1921. Although this book has never been widely translated or digitized, many authors directly cite Magnus’ book when citing this original treatment.
Methods: Magnus’ original work was accessed by communication with the National Library of Norway, and key sections were translated from Norwegian to English by the senior author of this paper. Google scholar and PubMed were searched to find papers directly citing Magnus’ original work.
Results: Sixteen papers, published between 1935 and 2016 were found directly citing Magnus’ original work with only three having authors associated with institutions in Norway. Based on our experience, accessing, reading, and understanding Magnus’ original work would have been extremely challenging for any author without Norwegian language skills.
Conclusion : Nearly all the direct citations of Magnus’ original work were likely made by authors who did not read the original source. While credit is due to Magnus for his groundbreaking treatment, authors must read and understand the sources they cite to avoid the proliferation of incorrect information and maintain academic integrity and credibility.
