To cite or not to cite, that is the (authors) question!

 

“Como te gustan las citas”, pregunta el caballero, acodado en la barra, a una señorita a su lado. Ella contesta sin dudarlo, “Apellido, Título y Año,…y vos?”

 

In scientific writing, recognizing others work when it is due, is very important for a variety of reasons. For starters, it is the right thing to do, but also, it relates to the idea that scientific knowledge builds upon earlier acquired information, very much like each brick of a wall is set upon a previously laid brick. When we write a paper, we acknowledge previous work by citing it.

 

Now, having said this, why is it that more often than not, students or junior scientists struggle when it comes to appropriately citing in their texts and in using the “right” reference list? One common issue-the use of too many references- could be assigned to some degree of lack of confidence in some statements. When one is writing your own first papers, you may often feel the need to refer to all that literature you have been struggling to read. But another emerging situation, is the ease with which we can cite work nowadays. Most researcher currently handle literature databases that are citation-ready, and with a simple click, can add a full citation to your reference list. Of course, this does not solve the issue of actually reading these papers and of how to use them in a text correctly.

 

Here are some thoughts on this that may prove helpful. First, my strategy to begin writing, is to do so without citing. I try to establish some coherent flow in each paragraph and maybe, when I know a reference is needed, I open brackets and write some reminder like “citation needed, or “XXXX, 2010 or so”. Later, when re-reading the text (which will happen a lot!), I will complete the full citation. I find this method prevents me from getting distracted from what I want to say in a given sentence or paragraph. After all, it is me trying to communicate an idea through writing. As the saying goes, “Drive it as if you stole it”.

 

Another thing I encourage my students to do, is to minimize the reference list. Sometimes you write a given statement that has become standard knowledge in the field your work on, and so there is no need to cite there. For example, if your work reports a study on behavioral ecology in which there is an obvious implication to evolution by natural selection, and you are writing a paper for a specialized journal, you may find that refering to Darwin’s “Origin of Species”¹ does not add much. This may be especially true for the methods and analysis sections. You would exceptionally, if ever, cite Fisher’s² work when analyzing data using ANOVA in an ecological study. Needless to say, is that these citations will naturally be referred to when writing and essay on evolution or a handbook of stats.

 

Also, I feel there is little added value to the reader, when a string of citations breaks a sentence right in the middle. It surely will read better if citations are located at the end of it, even if you struggle with the issue that some of the references, relate to a part of the sentence and not the whole idea there developed. For example, when listing the presence of a given insect or plant in different countries, we could be tempted to place each reference after each country mentioned. This could be reasonable, unless your list includes, say, 12 countries and this results in a choppy, very long sentence. Why no instead, list all references at the end of the sentence and let the reader-if she/he wants to delve into each country, figure it out later? You sacrifice a little precision for the sake of a better, more fluent reading. We must remember that scientific writing has its rules and practice, but as we have to deal with an increasing load of literature to read and understand, we appreciate good writing more than ever.

 

In sum, using citations appropriately has less to do with the best reference managing software you may have downloaded on your laptop and more with developing good writing skills. Hand checking the reference list and giving it a format (an asset promoted by every available software) can be cumbersome but to gain a proper perspective, think about how much effort and time it takes to plan your paper, collect that data and write it up. Also, do note that many journals are going towards format-free submissions.

 

Now, this is not intended to undermine the help these literature handling programs definitely do (in fact some are very practical and have reduced the use of paper and storage space immensely), but do remember that adding a PDF to your database, does not imply that you have read it! Of course, editors and reviewers get annoyed when the reference list is wrong, incomplete or a given, very relevant citation is missing in the text. But trust me, you are more likely to see rejection, or a bad review if your study is faulted or if your paper poorly drafted, than because of a missing reference. And, I think we all would agree, that having to read a paper several times, to understand where the author is going, can be even more frustrating.

 

 

1.     Darwin, C. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray.

2.     Fisher,R.A. 1925. Statistical Methods for Research Workers. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.