Q: Is it plagiarism if I cite all sources but by mistake include a wrong reference?
Plagiarism involves deliberately or inadvertently referencing previously published work, whether somebody else’s or yours, without acknowledging the source. In this case, without knowing the exact meaning of “a wrong reference,” it would be difficult to say if it qualifies as plagiarism. If it does, it’s probably a case of accidental plagiarism, one done mistakenly rather than deliberately. However, it could also be an error, whether in the name of the title or author(s), the year of publication, the page number, and so on.
In either case, you may write to the editor informing them of the error. If the article has not yet been published, it should be easier to make the change. However, if the article has already been published, whether in a physical version or online, the change will need to be made by issuing an erratum. All the same, it’s great that you are aware of matters of publication ethics and are seeking to due diligence. So, props for that!
To understand various aspects of plagiarism better, you may also go through the following resources:
It is not plagiarism, but a serious formatting mistake. In most cases and based exclusively on the educational background, only a teacher can detect whether quotes are taken from an indicated reference. Anyway, a reference and citation should be formatted according to the formatting rules. Plagiarism checking software can detect the wrong formatting easily. For example, Unicheck detects citations in APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago, and Harvard formats. Some other tools have their own algorithms and lists of formatting styles.
