Acknowledging the work of others
Topic: Citing your sources
What are your reasons for citing the work of others?
This topic is designed to help you improve:
- your understanding of the diversity of citation practices in science and scholarship
- your skills in using citation strategically in your writing, and supporting your students to do so
In this topic you are asked to test your knowledge of why and how academics use citation.
Further reading on this topic :
Martens, B. (2001). Do citation systems represent theories of truth? Information Research, 6(2), 23. Retrieved June 1, 2006 from http://informationr.net/ir/6-2/paper92.html*
“This article suggests that the citation can be viewed not only as a "concept symbol" but also as a "boundary object". The scientific, legal, and patent citation systems in America are examined at the micro, meso, and macro levels in order to understand how they function as commodified theories of truth in contemporary knowledge representation. This approach also offers a meta-theoretical overview of existing citation research efforts in science, law, and technology that may be of interdisciplinary interest.”(abstract)
Paul, D. (2000). In citing chaos: A study of the rhetorical use of citations. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 14(2), 185-222.
Analysis of citation in 13 research articles on chaos theory showed five consistent rhetorical practices: “ (1) using citations in the introduction, (2) using authors’ names in the citation, (3) using the citation in a statement that asserts a high level of certainty, (4) using citations to create a research spaces…, and (5) combining the authors’ name with placement in the introduction.” (p.185).
Small, H. (2004). Why authors think their papers are highly cited. Scientometrics, 60(3), 305-316.
Authors of highly cited papers in 22 different disciplines accounted for their citation rate giving four key reasons with about the same frequency - interest, novelty, utility and significance.
White, H.D. (2001). Authors as citers over time. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(2), 87-108.
Studies of the citation behaviours of eight information scientists suggested four main types of citation styles contributing to the writer’s “citation identity”: perfunctory-positive, perfunctory-negative, organic-positive and organic-negative. “Citation identities can also cast new light on the old question of whether citation frequency can measure quality.”(p.106).
Overview | Citing your sources | Recognising the influence of your colleagues
Conveying others' ideas in your own words | Reviewing the history of plagiarism
*Used with the author's permission.