Citations Are Important

When I wrote the first Memo on citrus fruit last week, I omitted part of the date from the citation found at the bottom of every Memo that cites a study or publication. Only a single person noticed. As I wrote in response, sometimes you look at something so many times you don’t see what’s wrong. She noticed because she typically looks up research and wanted to see if it was something she had read before.

From the time I was in graduate school, I’ve always tried to get citations right, especially those that refer to scientific journals. I’ve been on too many frustrating walks through the stacks in research libraries to cause that kind of grief for someone else.

Today you can search databases of journals quite easily. That is, unless you’re given an incomplete citation or worse, just the name and the year—and the year is wrong. I’ll try to make sure I triple-check them from now on. But please, once in a while, look up the research paper or book and take a look at the research paper yourself. You might find you enjoy it.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet