Timeline for Cite articles or book where I first found the result?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 16, 2011 at 6:50 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by S. Carnahan♦ | ||
| May 16, 2011 at 1:58 | comment | added | Deane Yang | In response to some of the objections to what I wrote, I can only agree that it is possible to cite too much and too carelessly. You do want to try to cite only papers that you honestly believe are significant and probably correct. But be generous in citing papers that meet your own personal standards for this. Try to cite primary sources as well as your preferred secondary sources. And the consequences are not so bad, if you sometimes cite a paper, whether based on your own reading of it or by endorsements by colleagues you respect, that turns out to be incorrect. | |
| May 16, 2011 at 1:08 | comment | added | JRN | @Deane: I do not disagree with you. However, one of my concerns is the tendency of some people to cite references without first making sure that the reference exists. For example, say that a paper was published in volume 19 of some journal. Because of a typo, the citation to it states that it was in volume 18. Readers unfamiliar with the paper (because they haven't read it) just copy the citation to volume 18. This type of error is common in the mathematics education literature. My suggestion is to read the paper (not necessarily completely understand it) just to make sure it exists. | |
| May 15, 2011 at 20:56 | comment | added | Michal Kotowski | This attitude has a downside, namely it leads to proliferation of references to papers which have gaps, errors, are incomplete etc. I don't want to use specific names, but it certainly happens that a widely cited paper has gaps in the proofs or is faulty in some way, which those citing it may not be aware of (because they haven't read it and, well, if so many people have cited it before, it "has" to be correct...). | |
| May 15, 2011 at 15:00 | history | answered | Deane Yang | CC BY-SA 3.0 |