Researchers compile their academic life’s work into scholarly publications, but many may not fully understand each of the components needed to create a viable reference book project. eContent Pro presents a blog series “Understanding the Inner Workings of a Reference Book” to explain the importance of each part of a reference book and some tips on how to effectively secure them. The blog series will include pieces on Titles, Front Matter, Keywords, Abstracts, Citations, Figures, Indexes, and Back Cover Text. To discover the importance of properly utilizing citations in your scholarly journal, read the following article.
Peppered throughout every chapter or article in a reference book are citations. And more importantly, for the readers, towards the back of the reference book is a bibliography or list of references citing every study the author(s) have cited. Citations add significant value to a manuscript as it strengthens the author’s research while avoiding plagiarism. Some authors may wonder what else do citations do and why are they important to a reference book?
What deserves Cited?
A common mistake among authors is a lack of citations, inaccurate citations, or citing too many items. So, what deserves cited in a reference book? Authors should cite every fact that isn’t common knowledge, even if they paraphrase it in their own writing. Ideas or theories from other publications should also be cited in reference books as well as a direct quote from someone.
Citations depend on the publisher’s style guidelines, but can feature author(s) names, title of books, articles or journals, date of publication, page numbers, and volume or issue numbers for articles if applicable. Authors must pay attention to detail to properly cite another person’s work and acknowledge their findings. Failure to properly cite one's work can ruin the reputation your overall work and lead to plagiarism penalties.
Impact of Citations
The inner workings of a reference book are created to appeal to the readers and support the author’s manuscript. Citations impact the credibility of the author as well as their research. Properly using citations and including a bibliography is important for authors because it gives your reader the comfort of knowing the research presented to them is from credible, published sources. It’s also important to give the original author credit for their findings or ideas through citations while avoiding plagiarism. Authors must create an organized bibliography that allows their readers to further observe the cited findings in the reference book.
Citations also impact the author’s own original work by supporting and strengthening their research. When appropriately used, citations can provide hard evidence of original ideas and furthering an author’s point. Utilizing citations can also provide credibility and verify the accuracy of the author’s research or ideas by almost serving as a double-check. Finally, creating an exhaustive bibliography shows readers the due diligence and thoroughness of the author that will be appreciated.
Authors should always be cautious of plagiarism when writing scholarly content as properly using citations can avoid this error but citing work with a bibliography serve further demands than just avoiding plagiarism. Citations are beneficial for both the reader and the author while ensuring each of them credibility. Authors submitting their manuscripts for publishing submissions should have their document professionally copy edited to correct any referencing errors to the particular style. eContent Pro’s English language copy editing service can benefit authors as their expert copy editors can resolve any citation errors over a wide variety of style guidelines.
