Never cite an article which you did not read

 Dear Friends,

I have attended one webinar titled “ Conquering the intricacies of citation and references ” delivered by Mr. Yateendra Joshi (yateendra.joshi@gmail.com), organized by Wiley on 24^th August 2021.

 Below are few opinions and learning outcomes out of this webinar.

For a researcher, citation and referencing are essential components that we mostly do not take seriously. We consider the task of citation and referencing as an extra and unimportant task; however, it is as important as the reporting research outcomes mentioned in the manuscript. The citation is the pointer of previously reported work, of which detail is mentioned at the end of the manuscript (sometime after abstract and before introduction also to emphasize the importance of reference items considered while preparing article).  The citation of other’s research outcomes in our articles shows that we have done enough homework, say literature survey, are aware of state-of-art work, knowing the problem well and research gap.  It is also a method of giving due credits to the researchers who have/are contributed/contributing to the research we are doing.  The citation and reference give a means of verifying the assertions claimed by authors.

Most importantly, proper citation and referencing also avoid falling into the category of plagiarism. Never cite an article that we have never come across, never read, and understood rightly. Interestingly, one article  (Van der Geer J, Hanraads J A J, and Lupton R A. 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Science Communications 163(2): 51–59 ) which does not exist was cited by more than 400 times ( as per google scholar it was cited by about 1223 times) which shows that those authors never verified or tried to consult the article.   Citation of the source of the first-hand and original information is a good practice. We should strictly follow the guidelines provided by the respective journal regarding the citation and referencing styles besides other suggestions for authors. 

Readers of my blog can access the slides of the talk given by Mr.  Yateendra Joshi by clicking here.

Thank you for giving your valuable time to read my blog. Your comments, suggestions shall be highly appreciated.