Transcript Use and abuse of citations

Use and abuse of citations
What are citations for?
• Giving credit to others
What are citations for?
• Giving credit to others
• Referring compactly to facts or ideas
What are citations for?
• Giving credit to others
• Referring compactly to facts or ideas
• Tracing the thread of argument
What are citations for?
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Giving credit to others
Referring compactly to facts or ideas
Tracing the thread of argument
Bean counting
History….
• The first journals appeared in the 1600’s
• Peer review was relaxed
History….
• The first journals appeared in the 1600’s
• Peer review was relaxed
• Citation was vague
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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….
• The first journals appeared in the 1600’s
• Peer review was relaxed
• Citation was vague:
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"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….
• The first journals appeared in the 1600’s
• Peer review was relaxed
• Citation was vague:
– Edwards, A. W. 2000. Carl Dusing (1884) on the regulation of the sex-ratio.
Theoretical Population Biology 58:255-7.
History….
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The first journals appeared in the 1600’s
Peer review was relaxed
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
CHISHOLM 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 B
DE 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. B
MAGDON-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 B
MALARZ. Searching for scaling in the Penna bit-string model of biological aging. Int. J. Mod. Phys C
MARTINS. Simulated coevolution in a mutating ecology. Physical Review E
MARTINS & CEBRAT, Random deaths in a computational model for age-structured populations. Theory in Biosciences
MEDEIROS. 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 Biosciences
NIEWCZAS et al. Housekeeping genes and death genes in the Penna aging model. Int. J. Mod. Phys
ORCAL et al. Testing a hypothesis for the evolution of sex. Int. J. Mod. Phys C
PEKALSKI 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
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Speciation is almost always allopatric: Mayr, Systematics & the origin
of species, 1942.
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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:
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Maynard Smith, J., and J. Haigh. 1974. The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable gene.
Genet.Res. 23:23-35.
• Good papers often get few citations:
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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 aware of the wider literature
• Be precise:
– cite page #, give quotations….
– Summarise the argument
• Be aware of the wider literature
• Be precise:
– cite page #, give quotations….
– Summarise the argument
• Be scholarly:
– Refer to the whole history of the argument