Post date: Dec 27, 2019 4:19:45 AM
SciWrite Tip of a day: Do not cite non-scholarly materials:
(1) Belief books
(2) Newspapers and magazines
(3) Websites, including blogs
(4) Speeches
(5) Television shows
These resources lack agreeable scientific standards and methods of evaluating and verifying concepts in a paper.
SUMMARY:
This tip may not be applicable to particular disciplines, especially those in social sciences. Of importance to us is to consider answers to the following questions when citing previous materials:
(1) Does the context allow citing specific types of materials?
(2) Does the citation guide readers to understand the problem bring addressed?
(3) What is the type of the target audience?
(4) Are the citations originated from credible sources?
For certain disciplines, especially those involving experimental research that the tip was based upon, we should first try to fetch information from formal and reliable sources. In such disciplines, we usually are motivated by reproduciability of results through repeatable lab experiments. Therefore, if we establish the results based on unreliable sources, other scholars may probably fail to establish constant laboratory settings and reproduce the results.