CITING AND ARRANGING REFERENCES II CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The importance of the citation and reference tradition in science is underlined by devoting two study units to 'Citing and Arranging References.' In order to ensure that you have learned the fundamental issues as thoroughly as possible, the salient points of the first two parts of Module 3 Unit 2 are summarised as the first component of this unit. Thus, you are expected to regard Module 3 Unit 3 as essentially a continuation of Module 3 Unit 2, the one helping to reinforce the other in your learning process. Two important 'systems' of citing works and arranging them logically and consistently are described for you in parts two and three of this unit. They are described essentially as alternatives to the 'name and year system’ described in Module 3 Unit 2. In other words, only one of the three alternative systems may be used in citing and arranging references in any type of scientific writing. It is always wrong to switch from one system to another in the same work.

Three other aspects of how to cite and arrange the literature of science are then briefly described for you. They may appear less important- than the three systems of citing and referencing described in the later part of Module 3 Unit 2 and the earlier part of this unit. In practice, however, they are just as important; any negligence on your part in handling these 'relatively minor' considerations will impact negatively on the quality of your work. You should, therefore, pay as much attention to them as you would to the 'major' parts. The usual Conclusion, Summary, and References conclude the formal presentation.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1.  list the major attributes of the citation and reference tradition in science 
2.  recall and use the alphabet-number system in citations and references 
3.  recall and use the citation order system in citations and references • name and describe three other aspects of citing and referencing to enhance the quality of scientific writing. 

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 The Citation and Reference Tradition in Science: A

Recapitulation The following is a list of the major attributes of the citation and reference tradition in science, as described for you ,in Module 3 Unit 2. It is being repeated here for two reasons: (i) to underline its significance and (ii) to reinforce your knowledge of this fundamental aspect of technical report writing. Here, then, is the list:

1. Citations and references are as important as the text material in all types of writing that you undertake. 
2. The product of your technical report writing — a term paper, a project, thesis, or dissertation, or a scientific paper, etc. - - is an important part of the corpus of human knowledge. 
3.  The citation tradition derives from the doctrine of Stare Decisis. You have a responsibility to ensure the integrity of that tradition. 
4. The scientific tradition requires that when a scientist or technologist writes or publishes a paper, he should refer to earlier works which relate to his theme. 
5.  You should endeavour to recall at least some of the 15 reasons authors refer to earlier works which relate to the theme of their current work. 
6. There are three basic rules to follow in handling the citations and references of your technical reports and scientific papers. The first is by far the most important and you should always recall it in all your writing. The three basic rules are listed as (a), (b) and (c) as follows: 

a. A fundamental objective for citing another work, or for referring to it in your own work, is to identify it with a sufficient number of unique features that it cannot possibly be confused with another work, no matter how similar. 

b. You should list only significant, published and unpublished references, but you must not allow references to unpublished data, papers in press, abstracts, and other secondary materials to clutter
your References.
c. Take time to check all parts of every reference against the original publication, before the report or manuscript is submitted, and perhaps again at a later stage, say, the page-proof stage.

3.2 The Alphabet Number System

This system, citation by number from an alphabetised list of references, is a modern modification of the name and year system. The system has two major advantages: (i) citation by number keeps printing expenses within reasonable control, and (ii) the alphabetised list, particularly if it is a long list, is relatively easy for authors to prepare and readers (especially librarians) to use.
Writers at the beginning of their careers in science and technology tend to favour the name and year approach and generally dislike the alphabet-number system. Their chief claim is that the citation of numbers cheats the reader on the following grounds:
a. The reader deserves to be told the name of the person associated with the cited phenomenon and
b. Sometimes the reader should also be told the date. For instance, it is argued, an 1876 reference might be viewed differently from a 1976 reference, especially in a work of science.

The arguments are sound, but can be easily overcome. As you cite references in the text, decide whether names or dates or both are important. If dates and names are not important (and this is usually the case), use only the reference number: "Pretyrosine is quantitatively converted to phenylalanine under these conditions (13)." If you want to feature the name of the author, do it within the context of the sentence: "The role of the carotid sinus in the regulation of respiration was discovered by Heymans (13)". lf, however, you want to feature the date, you can also do that within the sentence: "Streptomycin was first used in the treatment of tuberculosis in 1945(13):" Rarely will it be necessary to feature both name and date in the text, except in the infrequent cases when it is important to identify the original publication describing an eponymic concept or term as Hodgkin's disease

3.3 The Citation Order System

The citation order system is simply a system of citing the references (by number) in the order that they appear, in your report or paper. This system avoids the substantial printing expense of the name and year system. Readers often like it because they can quickly- refer to the references, if they so desire, in one-two-three order as they come to them in the text. It is a useful system for a journal or a house magazine in which each article contains only a few references. For long papers or technical reports with many references, the citation order system is neither good for the author nor the reader. It is not good for the author because of the substantial renumbering chore that results from addition or deletion of references. It is not ideal for the reader because the non-alphabetical presentation of the reference list may result in separation of various references to works by the same author.


You may come across much persuasive argument to use the name and year system, or the alphabet-number system, or the citation order system in citing and arranging your references. Reputable publishing houses and influential journal publishers are usually the agencies for promoting the use of one system in preference to any others. For example, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors published, in 1982, the first version of the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biochemical Journals," sponsoring the citation order system for the cooperating journals. As result, the "Uniform Requirements" have since been adopted by several hundred journals all over the world. In the same year, 1982, a new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, the authoritative reference source for most of the publishing community, appeared with its usual strong endorsement of alphabetically arranged references. In the Manual’s more than 100 pages of detailed instructions for handling references, it several times makes such comments as: “The most practical and useful way to arrange entries in a reference list or a bibliography is in alphabetical order, by authors, either running through the whole list or in each section of it.”


What practical sense should you make out of all this? Quite simple: don’t get involved in such arguments, sound and persuasive as they may seem. The advice given to you in section 3.3 of unit 2 remains valid still. As a reminder, the advice is repeated here as follows: “…adopt one of such manuals as your working tool for citing any type of published or unpublished work within your text, and for arranging all the references at the appropriate place(s) in the work.” When you have to conform to the requirements of a specific journal to which you have submitted a manuscript for publication you will, of course, comply strictly with the journal’s Instruction to Authors.

3.4 Titles and Inclusive Pages

Should article titles be given in references? The question is not as odd as it may see at first sight. Not a few authors of scientific works avoid the titles of articles in their references on the grounds of cost or time savings. You are advised not to give such reasons for a practice which is essentially borne out of laziness.

If your work is being submitted for publication in a journal, normally, you will have to follow the style of the journal. Some journals, however, leave the choice of including or not including article titles to authors. Whatever the situation, you are advised to give complete references at all times, that is, always include titles in your references. This practice has the big advantage of enabling interested readers (and librarians) to decide whether they need to consult none, some, or all of the cited references. With the increasing use of alerting services in science and technology, many researchers learn of recently published or forthcoming articles and conference presentations solely through their titles. Obviously, it would be impossible to benefit fully from alerting services in any subject area if the inclusion of titles in references were made voluntary.

The use of inclusive pagination (first and last page numbers) make it easy for potential users to distinguish one-page notes and 50-page review papers. Technical reports, in fact, are usually considerably longer that 50 pages. Obviously, the cost to you (or your library) of obtaining the references, particularly if acquired as photocopies, can vary considerably depending on the number of pages involved. Therefore, cultivate the habit of giving inclusive pages in all your references.

3.5 Journal Abbreviations

Although journal titles vary widely, one aspect of reference citation has been standardised for quite some time, that is, journal abbreviations. As the result of widespread adoption of the "American National Standard for the Abbreviation of Titles of Periodicals" (ANSI Z39.5-1969), almost all of the major primary journals and secondary services now use the same system of abbreviation. Previously, most journals abbreviated journal names; primarily to help reduce printing cost, but there was no uniformity. For example, the Journal of the American Chemical Society was - variously abbreviated to "J. Amer. Chem. Soc.," "j.A.C.S.," etc. These differing systems posed problems for everybody authors, publishers, and, especially, readers.

Now there is essentially only one system, and it is uniform. The word "Journal" is now always abbreviated as "J." (with or without the full stop after the letter J). By noting a few of the titles in your subject area(s), you can abbreviate many journal titles, even unfamiliar ones, without reference to a source list. It is helpful to know, for example, that all "ology" words are abbreviated at the "1" (e.g., "Bacteriology" is abbreviated "Bacterial."; "Physiology" is abbreviated "Physiol.," etc.). Thus, if you memorise the abbreviation of words commonly used in titles, most journal titles in your subject area(s) can be abbreviated with ease. An exception to be remembered is that one-word titles (Nature, Science, Biochemistry) are never abbreviated.

Despite the rather straightforward guidelines provided in this unit, you should never hesitate to make appropriate consultations in order: (i) to confirm what you may have done on your own, or (ii) to clear any lingering doubts. Librarians have been trained to provide the help you need. Therefore, consult them as often as the need arises, until you have acquired the necessary experience and confidence to handle journal abbreviations all on your own.

3.6 Citation in the Text

Many authors use slipshod methods in citing the literature of their text material. A common offender is the "handwriting reference," in which the reader is glibly referred to "Awojobi's elegant contribution" without any hint of what Awojobi reported or how Awojobi's results relate to the present author's results. If a reference is worth citing, the reader should be told why and in full, that is, within the text and in the list of references at the end.

Some authors get into the habit of putting all citations at the end of sentences. This is wrong. The reference should be placed at that point in the sentence to which it applies. Let's examine two different ways of citing two references in a single sentence as follows:

1. We have examined a digital method of spread-spectrum modulation for multiple-access satellite communication and for digital mobile radio telephony. 1'2 Note how much clearer the citations become when the sentence is recast as follows: 
2.  We have examined a digital method of spread-spectrum modulation for use with Awojobi's development of multiple-acces communication' and with Brown's technique of digital mobile radio-telephony.2

4.0 CONCLUSION

This unit concludes the theme which was begun in Module 3 Unit 2. In order to underline the significance of using appropriate citations and references in scientific writing, you are provided, at the beginning of this unit a list of the major attributes of the citation and reference tradition in science. The list is a summary of the first part of Module 3 Unit 2. The merits and disadvantages of two additional systems — the 'alphabet-number' and 'citation order' for handling citations and references are discussed for you. You are now in a good position to decide for yourself which of the three systems discussed in Module 3 Unit 2 and in Unit 13 that would be most appropriate for handling citations and references in our subject area(s).

Three other aspects of citations and references, that is, Titles and Inclusive Pages, Journal Abbreviations, and Citation in the Text are described and illustrated for you. It is emphasised that while these aspects may appear minor, compared to the three 'system'. they often contribute significantly to the poor quality of scientific writing, if sufficient attention is not paid to them. You are, therefore, advised not to consider any aspect as minor.

5.0 SUMMARY

At the end of unit, you have learned to:

1.  list six major attributes of the citation and reference tradition in science 
2.  recall and use the alphabet-number system in citations and references 
3.  recall and use the citation order system in citations and references; and 
4. name and describe three other aspects of citing and referencing to enhance the quality of scientific writing. 

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1.  What are the major attributes of the citation and reference tradition in science. 
2. Name and describe three major systems of citing and referencing to enhance the quality of scientific writing.