Comments on: Citation Practices

By: RossPCameron

RossPCameron — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:53:09 +0000

For the record, as a result of the various discussions this prompted around the web, my view is now the following:

Adding that request at the top of your paper is permissible provided that there’s a general convention that permission will be given provided the reader wants to cite from the latest version.

However: if what people intend to convey by ‘please don’t cite without permission’ is ‘please check with me that you have the latest version before citing’ then I still think it would just be easier for everyone if they simply said that!

By: Steve Finlay

Steve Finlay — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:08:56 +0000

I’m one of those who posts papers in progress including such a request. I think that so far in this thread the point has been missed. When I make such a request, it’s not that I don’t want to be cited. (I certainly do! And in almost every scenario I’d grant permission.) It’s rather that I’d prefer to asked first. (Similarly, if I wanted to cite another’s paper which included this request, I would just ask). The reason I’d prefer to be asked is (a) that I’d rather not be put on record as having claimed something really stupid, so I reserve the right to refuse permission, (b) I may have an updated version that I would prefer to have quoted instead, and© this gives me the opportunity to explain or defend myself, if the paper-in-progress doesn’t do this well enough, and it also gives me the opportunity to explain (and request acknowledgment) if my position has shifted.

By: Carrie Jenkins

Carrie Jenkins — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:42:35 +0000

One thing we have to bear in mind is what the effect would be on likely levels of circulation of unpublished work if the established opinion were that it\\‘s selfish to request that people not cite it without permission. As Clayton stresses, it\\‘s a big deal to have your work rendered unpublishably obsolete because someone else has cited your unpublished paper, especially if you are at an early career stage where getting publications is crucial. So if you don\\‘t feel you can circulate stuff but request that people not cite without permission, what are you going to do? Often, I imagine, not circulate it at all. But early-career people often have much (maybe most) to gain from circulating their papers and getting comments. I don\\‘t want them to feel they can\\‘t get that benefit because they\\‘ll have to either look selfish or else risk losing publication opportunities.

I should also say that I think there are many benefits to the philosophical community at large from having unpublished stuff circulating which do not depend on its being freely citeable in published papers. E.g.: keeping in touch with what people are up to, future planning about work you might like to do if certain currently-unpublished things should later appear in print, and of course good old-fashioned intrinsic interest. I don\‘t really think it\‘s fair, therefore, to say that people who ask that permission be sought for citations are reaping benefits without conferring any.

By: clayton

clayton — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:56:16 +0000

I used to follow the custom of begging to be cited or quoted, but that looked desperate. Here is a concern that I think is legitimate. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless has had papers rejected (apparently) on the grounds that the paper’s argumentative strategy is similar to work published after their work was submitted for review. On the off chance that B has had to cite A’s unpublished paper to develop B’s argument and B is lucky enough to get into print before A does, A’s work, which was apparently instrumental to B’s work, will never reach the presses. This is a big deal if A is not a big deal. A’s work serves as an unpublishable enabler but might have been published if only someone hadn’t relied on their work to further their own writing. Being cited by another isn’t exactly something to put on the vita.

I really can’t see what’s wrong with saying that you’d prefer others not to use your work in ways that might make it harder for your work to make it into print even if you are the sort of person who’s trolling for feedback on the interweb.