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I'm a PhD student who has submitted his first article and I have a question that makes me upset and embarrassed.

After submitting the article I realised that one of my references which I cited in the article was not included in the reference list, however, I have never been through this process so I don't know what can happen next. I don't know if the reviewers can reject my work or somehow say that this flaw is plagiarism (although I think it is copying the ideas of others without mentioning them, I mentioned the author only the reference is missing, which I will add later if I got that change) or if they put it as a note in the comments so that if it is accepted it can be added in the future.

Could someone help me? I've been spending some almost sleepless nights thinking about this... If there are any reviewers, editors or authors out there with similar experience, please let me know.

P.S. It is under revision, so I am very stressed and impatiently waiting for bad news due to this.

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    Are you using software to manage your citations? I would highly recommend it, and while it comes with its own issues it greatly simplifies the process of formatting references and makes a mistake like this much less likely.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Aug 14 at 18:18
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    @BryanKrause Thank you very much for your recommendation. I used Zotero, but I still haven't understood why it wasn't added. Do you recommend another software?
    – just_a_student
    Commented Aug 14 at 18:56
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    I don't have any specific software recommendation, just have found that sometimes people starting their academic careers haven't had anyone tell them about this sort of software.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Aug 14 at 19:00
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    You'll be fine, don't worry. Most likely, if the reviewer is keen enough on the topic, they'll probably add a comment that that specific work should be referenced. A paper won't be rejected cause a specific source wasn't cited.
    – Spencer Kraisler
    Commented Aug 15 at 17:13

4 Answers 4

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Relax. Small mistakes occur on a regular basis.

You can fix this during the revision process. In the unlikely event your paper is accepted as written, this mistake would be caught and fixed during the copy-editing process (I know from experience).

Also, based upon a comment for Buffy, even if you paper was accepted as written, you could still let the editor know and they would fix it.

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    Even if accepted "as is", the editor will let you make minor corrections. Just let them know.
    – Buffy
    Commented Aug 14 at 18:15
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    @Buffy Thank you so much for your comment.
    – just_a_student
    Commented Aug 14 at 18:53
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As a reviewer in math, I've asked authors to formally cite references before. This is not a big deal.

I'd consider this a minor error. It's common for referee reports to contain lists of minor mistakes/omissions and requests for additions and clarifications -- this has been true for papers I reviewed and recommended for publication, and it has been equally true for my own papers that were reviewed by others and later accepted and published.

This isn't a big deal. You needn't worry -- although, if it would bring you peace of mind, it would be fine to add the reference to the paper, and send a brief email to the editor saying "Apologies, I just realized that I accidentally omitted one of the references, here is a version with the missing reference included".

One additional piece of advice: although this isn't a cause for rejection, I'd advise you to try to get used to your work being rejected and not to lose any more sleep over it. I've had plenty of papers, grant proposals, etc. be rejected, and so has virtually every other academic. Honestly, if you have a long-term academic career and your work never gets rejected, then you probably aren't being ambitious enough in your choice of where to submit!

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    Dear @academic thank you for sharing your experience. I understand that there's always the possibility of being rejected. However, I don't want to be rejected for this failure, because then I feel that more than responsibility (because I am the first author) I feel that I have failed my co-authors and supervisor in a big way. In your opinion and experience, how common is it to forget a reference? Concerning the email, I've always heard that it's better to wait for feedback and then do something, as editors are usually very busy. So I don't know if I should wait..
    – just_a_student
    Commented Aug 14 at 20:14
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    I'm not sure how common it is to forget a reference, to be honest. It's the kind of mistake that is probably often not noticed. But making small mistakes in general is certainly common.
    – academic
    Commented Aug 14 at 20:33
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    Honestly, this is a very minor error. Depending on your field, and reviewers, either no-one will notice, in which case you just correct it when you reply to reviewers, or someone will say, - very likely an author of the paper you left out -, please put it in. Anyone who thinks they have never done this or worse in an academic career is probably not paying attention. Also - don't fret, and use software to manage references. I use Zotero. Best wishes!
    – astaines
    Commented Aug 15 at 10:42
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    end a brief email to the editor saying "Apologies, I just realized that I accidentally omitted one of the references, here is a version with the missing reference included". - While you could do this, it will create an extra burden for the editors, needing to update your submission and contact the referee again, so I generally wouldn't recommend making minor changes until you get asked for a revision.
    – Kimball
    Commented Aug 15 at 11:22
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    @Kimball I essentially agree with you, and I completely agree if we have resolved OP's anxiety. Objectively speaking the best course of action is to do nothing now. That said, personally I've had similar experiences where I've been anxious, even after being reassured by experts -- so I suggest this only if OP finds himself still losing sleep.
    – academic
    Commented Aug 15 at 13:05
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This is not a big deal.

I've personally submitted a paper with all references missing (too much LaTeX, too little experience) and all that it led to was a polite email from the editor, slightly longer refereeing process, and some embarrassment. A single reference missing is the type of error that's routinely sorted out during the review process, and no referee in their right mind would accuse you of plagiarism if the author of the paper is mentioned.

The norms matter from field to field, so it would be helpful to know what's your discipline. In mathematics, if I was the referee, in a situation like this I might complain that some claim you made is not sufficiently justified and a citation is needed, or I might point out that similar ideas appear in some other paper and you should cite it, but it's very difficult for me to imagine a situation where a missing citation causes me to think that something nefarious is going on.

Another point worth keeping in mind is that before anything gets published, even in the very unlikely scenario that a paper is accepted without any corrections, even if somehow they don't offer you an opportunity to make changes and they don't catch this issue in the copyediting process, the journal will need you to sign a copyright form and at this point they will need to ask you if there's anything wrong with the paper. So, it's not possible for this error to somehow go into print by accident if you're aware of it and want to fix it.

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All of the above are very good answers. I would add that this type of problem, if not caught by the editor or reviewers (a real possibility), would be addressed during copy editing. I have had an article go through review and revision before the error was caught. It was then spotted by an eagle-eyed copy editor during typesetting.

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    This was also mentioned by @RichardErickson. (My link seems to just take me to the bottom of the page, though it's directly from the "share" link to that answer … sorry!)
    – LSpice
    Commented Aug 16 at 15:55

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