def remove_leading_garbage_lines_from_reference_section(ref_sectn):
    """Sometimes, the first lines of the extracted references are completely
       blank or email addresses. These must be removed as they are not
       references.
       @param ref_sectn: (list) of strings - the reference section lines
       @return: (list) of strings - the reference section without leading
        blank lines or email addresses.
    """
    p_email = re.compile(ur'^\s*e\-?mail', re.UNICODE)
    while ref_sectn and (ref_sectn[0].isspace() or p_email.match(ref_sectn[0])):
        ref_sectn.pop(0)
    return ref_sectn