The Wisdom of Citing Scientists

[Ronald ROUSSEAU]

The role played by citations in reasoning is simple: it is a short-hand. Instead of repeating the reasoning of a fellow scientist (and here it is claimed that this reasoning is correct; otherwise a simple citation is not enough) one just refers the reader to the original source (to verify for him/her self).

Friendly greetings,

Ronald


Ronald Rousseau •

President ISSI

Guest professor University of Antwerp (UA) - IBW

Guest professor KU Leuven  (bijzonder gasthoogleraar)
Senior Researcher VIVES


In scientific affairs one can never be too generous




        talent at work

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Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge - Oostende

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Zeedijk 101, 8400  Oostende, Belgium
http://www.khbo.be/


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Van: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] namens David Wojick [dwojick at CRAIGELLACHIE.US]
Verzonden: zondag 11 augustus 2013 15:40
Aan: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Onderwerp: Re: [SIGMETRICS] The Wisdom of Citing Scientists

The concept of the "reason" for a citaion is ambiguous because there are different kinds of reasons, some of which have been alluded to in our discussion. There are psychological reasons such as motivation, sociological reasons such as convention, strategic reasons, etc.

Being a logician my interest is simply the role that the citation plays in the reasoning presented in the article. Science is after all a system of reasoning, often linked by citations. Every article is itself a complex structure of reasoning. I just wrote about this at
<http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/07/10/the-issue-tree-structure-of-expressed-thought/>http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/07/10/the-issue-tree-structure-of-expressed-thought/.

For example a citation may be part of the introductory historical narrative or it may be offering evidence supporting a strong claim, and this is a significant difference. We might call these the epistemic reasons for the citations. What role does the citation play in the reasoning?

The point is that there are different kinds of reasons, which need to be sorted out in any scientific inquiry into the reasons for citations.

David Wojick


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