Yes to all that, Claudia. I also think there are differences between the reasons we make students cite and the reasons we, as professionals, cite in our own publications. (Students must prove their knowledge, but when we're writing to our own disciplinary subgroup, and our work is at all known to that subgroup, establishing our general credibility is not so much at issue.) The differences are probably not explicit enough to many of us, and they are probably not necessary to make clear to (undergrad) students.
Trying to loop back to the question of self-citation, I usually find discussion of this "problem" overgrown with too much "school marmism" to take entirely seriously. If you are trying to take credit for an idea twice, that is a problem, but I have often found myself in the situation of writing two or more papers about the same material to two or more distinct audiences: e.g., (1) about a Canadian psychological event to Canadian and American audiences, (2) about the work of Charles Babbage to cog/comp scientists and to historians, (3) about early sport psychology to psychologists and to baseball enthusiasts. I usually nominally cite my previous work to cover my behind, but the whole point of writing two papers on the same topic is to highlight different aspects according to the audience's interests and to make different assumptions about what the audience's knowledge base is likely to be. Best, Chris ----- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 Canada [email protected] > On Sep 1, 2017, at 5:57 PM, Claudia Stanny <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Thanks, Chris! > > This is my thinking, also. Citation is not just about giving credit to avoid > a charge of plagiarism. Citation is how we establish our scholarly > credentials and communicate to our audience. > > Audience is especially tricky for students, but many assume their audience is > their professor (who knows everything! so why cite what is known to that > reader?). So I also emphasize to students that part of the culture of > citation is demonstrating that you know the literature. So you cite the > critical works, even if they are well known to most of the readers or the > work is well know. Although the Little Albert study probably appears in every > intro psych text book and is a cultural meme of sorts, students indicate > their scholarship by citing the report of this work (and, interestingly, some > textbook authors reveal themselves as having relied on a secondary source > when they misspell Rosalie's name 😱). The audience might well know where > this appeared and doesn't necessarily need the citation, but including it > signals that the writer has accessed the primary literature and read it. > > Similarly, accuracy of citations reflects on the care and scholarship of the > author. These are subtle cues for expertise, but I think it would be helpful > to make students aware of this side of authorship. Helps defuse the sense > that citation practices are arbitrary hoops created for students to make them > crazy. > > Best, > Claudia > > > _____________________________________________ > > Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. > Director > Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment > BLDG 53 Suite 201 > University of West Florida > Pensacola, FL 32514 > > Phone: (850) 857-6355 (direct) or 473-7435 (CUTLA) > > [email protected] > > CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/offices/cutla/ > > >> On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 10:42 AM, Christopher Green <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Many good points, Dap! You even have these kinds of differences among >> different subfields of psychology, not just different nationalities. For >> instance, every historian of psychology knows that William James was highly >> active in the spiritualist movement from the 1880s until his death, but many >> non-historian psychologists don't know it. So, I would be unlikely to cite >> this fact if I were writing for a history of psychology journal. I might do >> so, however, if I were writing for a generalist journal or an experimental >> journal. The issue isn't so much how I came to know it as it is whether my >> readers are likely to be aware of it as part of their general knowledge. >> >> Best, >> Chris >> ----- >> Christopher D. Green >> Department of Psychology >> York University >> Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 >> Canada >> >> [email protected] >> > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=51311 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-51311-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=51314 or send a blank email to leave-51314-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
