by Hiro Sheridan
Back off, man. I’m a scientist.:
[Via Unqualified Offerings]
By Thoreau
A recent study finds that scholars are incredibly diligent about properly citing sources and making sure that they understand the contents of a paper before citing it.
Sometimes references are cut and pasted from previous papers, so if there is a mistake in the citation, it will continue. Reference manager software makes this less likely.
The greater problem is that often the citation given does not actually provide the information needed. To save space, articles will often reference a protocol that is described in another article. But sometimes, this article does not actually provide the complete details, necessitating a further search. This sort of serial citation happens all the time.
While the science can be self-correcting, since it has to be verified, the citations often are never really verified. Perhaps this can be fixed.
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