use and abuse of citations. what are citations for? giving credit to others

Use and abuse of citations

What are citations for?

• Giving credit to others



• Referring compactly to facts or ideas




• Tracing the thread of argument




• Tracing the thread of argument

• Bean counting

History….

• The first journals appeared in the 1600’s

• Peer review was relaxed

History….



• Citation was vague• Youatt, who was probably better acquainted with the works of agriculturalists than

almost any other individual, and who was himself a very good judge of an animal, speaks of the principle of selection as 'that which enables the agriculturist, not only to modify the character of his flock, but to change it altogether. It is the magician's wand, by means of which he may summon into life whatever form and mould he pleases.' Lord Somerville, speaking of what breeders have done for sheep, says: 'It would seem as if they had chalked out upon a wall a form perfect in itself, and then had given it existence.' That most skilful breeder, Sir John Sebright, used to say, with respect to pigeons, that 'he would produce any given feather in three years, but it would take him six years to obtain head and beak.’ Darwin, 1859, Origin of Species, Ch. 1

History….



• Citation was vague:– "it is astonishing," as Mr. B. D. Walsh(3) has remarked, "how many different organs are worked

in by nature, for the seemingly insignificant object of enabling the male to grasp the female firmly." The mandibles or jaws are sometimes used for this purpose; thus the male Corydalis cornutus (a neuropterous insect in some degree allied to the Dragon-flies, &c.) has immense curved jaws, many times longer than those of the female; and they are smooth instead of being toothed, by which means he is enabled to seize her without injury.(4)

– 3 'The Practical Entomologist,' Philadelphia, vol. ii. May, 1867, p. 88.– 4 Mr. Walsh, ibid. p. 107. – Darwin, 1871, The Descent of Man

History….



• Citation was vague:– Edwards, A. W. 2000. Carl Dusing (1884) on the regulation of the

sex-ratio. Theoretical Population Biology 58:255-7.

History….



• Citation was vague

• Now, there is a strong convention– yet, citation is often shallow and narrow

Butlin, R., and T. Tregenza. 2005. The way the world might be. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18:1205-1208.

• Analyse 200 citations to Dieckmann, U., and M. Doebeli. 1999. On the origin of species by sympatric speciation. Nature 400:354-357.

Whitlock, M. C., and N. H. Barton. 1997. The effective size of a subdivided population. Genetics 146:427-441.

142 citations

Whitlock, M. C., and N. H. Barton. 1997. The effective size of a subdivided population. Genetics 146:427-441.

• Most citations are to the concept of Ne

• Should cite original papers or textbook

Penna, T. J. P. 1995. A bit-string model for biological aging. Journal of Statistical Physics 78:1629-1633.

• Asexual reproduction; two alleles per locus• Mutation at locus i is expressed at age i.• Penna has 14 papers on ageing• Penna (1995) cited by 99 papers; 97/99 in

physics journals

Penna, T. J. P. 1995. A bit-string model for biological aging. Journal of Statistical Physics 78:1629-1633.

• Asexual reproduction; two alleles per locus• Mutation at locus i is expressed at age i.• Penna has 14 papers on ageing• Penna (1995) cited by 99 papers; 97/99 in

physics journalsCHISHOLM et al. Self-organized criticality in an asexual model? Int. J. Mod. Phys.DABKOWSKI et al. Verhulst factor in the Penna model of biological aging. Acta Physica Polonica BDE ALMEIDA, & THOMAS, Scaling in a continuous time model for biological aging. Int. J. Mod. Phys. DE OLIVEIRA et al. Evolution and ageing. Physica DUDA et al. Effect of inherited genetic information on stochastic predator- prey model. Int. J. Mod. Phys .GERAMI & EJTEHADI. A history-dependent stochastic predator-prey model: Chaos and its elimination. European Phys. J. BMAGDON-MAKSYMOWICZ et al. Biological ageing with birth rate controlled by mutations in the Penna model. Theory in Biosciences MAKOWIEC, D. Penna model of biological aging on a lattice. Acta Physica Polonica BMALARZ. Searching for scaling in the Penna bit-string model of biological aging. Int. J. Mod. Phys CMARTINS. Simulated coevolution in a mutating ecology. Physical Review EMARTINS & CEBRAT, Random deaths in a computational model for age-structured populations. Theory in BiosciencesMEDEIROS. Selection experiments in the Penna model for biological aging. Int. J. Mod. Phys C .NIEWCZAS et al. The influence of the medical care on human life expectancy and the Penna ageing model. Theory in BiosciencesNIEWCZAS et al. Housekeeping genes and death genes in the Penna aging model. Int. J. Mod. PhysORCAL et al. Testing a hypothesis for the evolution of sex. Int. J. Mod. Phys CPEKALSKI Model of evolution with sexual and non-sexual reproduction. European Phys. J. B PLETCHER et al. Biological aging - Criteria for modeling and a new mechanistic model. Int. J. Mod. Phys C SOUSA et al. Simulating inbreeding depression through the mutation accumulation theory. Physica A

• Speciation is almost always allopatric: Mayr, Systematics & the origin of species, 1942.

• Speciation is almost always allopatric: Mayr, Systematics & the origin of species, 1942.

• This view emerges from a long debate from Darwin’s time on (Moritz Wagner, David Starr Jordan)

• Summarised by Coyne, J. A., and H. A. Orr. 2004. Speciation. Sinauer Press, Sunderland, Massachussetts

• Good papers often get few citations:• Maynard Smith, J., and J. Haigh. 1974. The hitch-hiking effect of a

favourable gene. Genet.Res. 23:23-35.

• Be aware of the wider literature


• Be precise:– cite page #, give quotations….– Summarise the argument


• Be precise:– cite page #, give quotations….– Summarise the argument

• Be scholarly:– Refer to the whole history of the argument

use and abuse of citations. what are citations for? giving credit to others

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