Quirky but common citation problems

There are a few quirky citing problems that crop up from time to time and cause lots of confusion, so let's just deal with them right now and get it over with, shall we?

Problem 1. You are trying to cite a journal article, but you can't find all the citation elements you need on the first page of the article.

If that happens, try typing the title of the article into Google Scholar to see if you can find it. If you find it, click the quotation marks below the blurb to view how Google Scholar thinks the source should look in various citation styles, as you see to the right. This might help. If this doesn't solve your problem, then ask for help using Cline Library's chat service.

Problem 2. Your citation style guide says your journal article citations should include a DOI. What the...?

A DOI is a Digital Object Identifier. Think of it as a persistent URL or permalink that'll always lead you to a specific journal article. Older DOI's begin with a number 10 and look like these examples:

10.3352/jeehp.2013.10.3
10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449

Newer DOIs look more like this:

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2018.1560449
https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881118806297
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093354

You can usually find an article's DOI on the first page of the article, usually in the header or footer but sometimes at the end of the abstract or elsewhere.

If you can't find the DOI, then try looking the article up in a service called Crossref, as you see to the left.

If you find your article in CrossRef, it'll display the DOI. If you can't find your article, then your article may not have a DOI. This is fairly common; most older articles don't have a DOI assigned to them.

You'll have to construct your citation without a DOI if the article you're using doesn't have one.

FYI – If you happen to have the DOI of an article, you can use it to find the actual article. Just use the Crossref service described above.

QUESTION 1. A digital object identifier, or DOI, is:

A. a string of characters assigned to a particular journal article

B. a way to get to a particular journal article on the web

C. a special database for finding data sets

D. Both A and B.

(Answer at bottom of page.)

Problem 3. The journal article you want to cite has no page numbers, or weird-looking page numbers, or it has no volume number or issue number, or the volume and issue numbers are listed as zero. So, what do you do?

Keep calm. It's going to be ok. If you recall, in an earlier lesson you learned that most publishers publish journals in two formats: in print and online. But, not all the time. In some cases a journal might only be published online, with no print counterpart.

Think about it – it's really only when you are flipping through physical, printed material that volume numbers, issue numbers, and page numbers have any meaning – insofar as these numbers help you zero in on a specific article.

So, in cases where a publisher is only delivering their journal content online – and not printing a corresponding physical journal issue – the publisher may decide to eliminate volume numbers, issue numbers, or page numbers for that journal.

A good example is the journal PLoS ONE – it's only published online, with no print counterpart, and every article begins on page one. So, PLoS ONE assigns its articles a number, called an article number, which is used in place of the page range when you create a citation. Here's an example of a citation for an article published in PLoS ONE:

Magnhagen, C., Wacker, S., Forsgren, E., Myhre, L. C., Espy, E., & Amundsen, T. (2014). Context consistency and seasonal variation in boldness of male two-spotted gobies. PLOS ONE, 9(3), e93354.

Note that instead of entering a span of page numbers for that article, you'd enter: e93354. Many citation style guides don't really address how to deal with issues like this, so you just have to use your best judgement and do the best you can.

Or, it could be something completely different that's causing your article's citation weirdness. It could be that the article is brand, spanking new and has just been accepted by the journal for publication.

Publishers will load these brand new articles up on the journal's website to make them public ASAP. However, there might be several months lag time before the publisher manages to publish the article in its corresponding print form, as part of a journal issue. It's only when the article is published in the print journal issue that it'll get assigned volume, issue and page numbers. The publisher will then update the online version of the article with the volume, issue, and page numbers - but until then that data might be absent or show up as: Volume 0, Issue 0, pp. e02002. Or, it might show up as something equally weird looking.

Again, most citation style guides don't really address how to deal with issues like this, so you just have to use your best judgement and use whatever data you have –including zeros for volume and issue – to put your citation together.

FYI – articles published online before they are published in print are called "e-pub ahead of print" articles.

Question 2. "E-pub ahead of print" articles usually don't have:

A. authors

B. page numbers

C. peer-reviewers

D. roaming charges

(Answer at bottom of page.)

Ok, so what did you get out of Lesson 7?

You should be able to explain why citing other sources in your writing strengthens your writing.
You should know that if you use an outside source and don't cite it, you are guilty of plagiarism.
You should know four techniques for incorporating outside sources into your writing, and how to choose the best technique for your reader's needs.
You should know to consult a citation style guide for specifics on how to create in-text citations and full citations.
You should be able to explain what DOIs are and troubleshoot some common citing problems.

You are finished with Lesson 7.

What's next?

1) You can proceed to Lesson 8, or if you need to show you've mastered this lesson, you must take the test.

2) To take the tests associated with this tutorial, go to the LINKS TO ALL TESTS page and follow the instructions you see there. You should also DOCUMENT YOUR COMPLETION of tutorial tests.

3) Before you take the tests and/or move on to the next lesson, please fill out the adjacent survey to share your thoughts about Lesson 7! Note that the survey is anonymous so your name and email are not being collected or shared.

THANK YOU!!

Answers to questions on this page:Question 1. DQuestion 2. B

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