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How to Cite a Blog
Here's a sign of the times, the NIH provides a style guide on how to cite a blog. Bizarrely, however, they include a space for "Place of Publication." It's annoying enough that book citations require a location for the publisher - does anyone use this? Ever? We should not carry wasteful practices to the web.
Still, the idea that blogs can and should be cited is nice to see. The bottom line? Two r's in Tabarrok.
Hat tip to Boing Boing Blog.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on October 12, 2007 at 11:52 AM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
I HATE style-guides!
Posted by: josh at Oct 12, 2007 12:23:20 PM
The "Bluebook" used for law reviews has had a format for citing to websites for several editions now.
Posted by: KipEsquire at Oct 12, 2007 12:59:57 PM
This is just the beginning.
I found a lot of doubts about Farewell to Alms clarified in a excellent 4-5post and response on Econlog between Caplan and Clark. Blogs like MR of course have and will continue to set the tone for standard practices wrt blogs.
Posted by: sa at Oct 12, 2007 1:03:41 PM
I agree, the "Place of Publication" is pointless. Also, the style guide appears to be based on book format, when it should resemble a periodical. There should be an article title as well as the blog title (NIH buries this guidance in a different chapter on citing databases). The NIH guide also gives the author's name twice.
Posted by: c18 at Oct 12, 2007 1:03:52 PM
So when we cite Marginal Revolution what do we use for the place of publication? Fairfax, where you live, where the server is located?
Posted by: Robert S. Porter at Oct 12, 2007 1:25:45 PM
"It's annoying enough that book citations require a location for the publisher - does anyone use this? Ever?"
I've been wondering ever since. If a reader could enlighten us as to this practice's historical origin (there must have been some rationale at one point in time), I'd be very grateful.
Posted by: LemmusLemmus at Oct 12, 2007 1:33:10 PM
I have no citation for this - but I was once told that all (British) publications required the publishers name and address because they were legally responsible for the content - in other words, so that they could be tracked down and sued for libel, blasphemy or whatever.
Probably the ISP is the modern equivalent.
Posted by: Bruce G Charlton at Oct 12, 2007 1:37:05 PM
Well, this proper citation/referencing business is a real can of worms,
if not rat's nest. I would agree that location is pretty ridiculous
for a blog. However, for publishers, many operate in different cities,
and if one is trying to obtain the book from the publisher, sometimes
one needs to go the outlet in that city (these different cities sometimes
reflecting that previously there were two publishers, but one bought the
other out, and the two branches may not be all that well meshed; as an
author and an editor I have had more than my share of grief with the
complications arising from such mismatched mish-mashes).
Of course there are some outlets that only want city and not publisher,
which has always struck me as being really peculiar.
Furthermore, of course, there are no general standards. Every publisher,
and sometimes even individual journals, will have their own requirements,
as anyone who has done more than a minimum amount of publishing knows all
too well. Going around trying to establish any sort of general standard
is just a joke.
So, while I am at it, I am going to note two bugaboos I have with some
of the standards used by some publishing outlets for bibliographic
references (indeed these criticisms apply to the publisher of the journal
that I edit, Elsevier), although some may also be criticisms of how some
journals manage themselves.
One bugaboo is the insistence of many journals (including Elsevier)
to use only initials for first and middle names. I know of and can
name several pairs of economists who have different first names, but
the same initials, who publish (or have published) in the same areas
of economics. Knowing the first names resolves the ambiguity.
Thus there are (were) two J.K. Galbraiths publishing on macroeconomics
from an institutionalist, Post Keynesian perspective.
There are two R.E. Baldwins publishing on international trade theory
and policy.
There are two R. Gordons publishing on macroeconomics.
There are (were) two A. Rapaports publishing on game theory.
BTW, I know that it is out of the hard sciences where this
tradition of using only initials originates. But I think it
is misleading and stupid.
So, I have not read the guidelines, but I would hope the citations
ask for peopless' names, although of course on this matter we run
once again into the problem of people using phoney monikers.
The other matter is definitely not an issue for citing blogs.
It involves page numbers and volume numbers. Again, Elsevier
demands that only volume and page numbers be given for journal
articles. But while most journals paginate by volume, some
do so by issue, and at least one prominent journal does not
even have volume numbers (Brookings Papers on Economic Activity).
Among the journals that paginate by issue are the Journal of
Economic Perspectives and Challenge. Furthermore, we now have
electronic journals that do not have page numbers or volume numbers.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Oct 12, 2007 2:08:35 PM
This is simply an assumption about the need to cite a publisher's location but, for a smaller publisher from a smaller country, (particularly in a pre-Internet world), the city may be needed to find the publisher. On reading the story of Lonely Planet's creation, it seems that early on they were virtually unheard of and it would've been particularly hard to find them if you were, in say, Europe. However, this is purely speculation.
Posted by: Matt Leese at Oct 12, 2007 4:09:05 PM
Written like a social scientist. In the humanities, the location of publication of a book is often important, especially if the book is a hundred years old.
Posted by: David 9002 at Oct 12, 2007 9:21:35 PM
DR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN here,
Nice to see that even the NIH appreciates blogs.
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN
Sweden
Posted by: DR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN at Oct 12, 2007 11:07:29 PM
DR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN here,
Blogs can communicate scientific ideas to the scientific community.
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN
Sweden
Posted by: DR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN at Oct 12, 2007 11:09:38 PM
Tak sa mycket, DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN Franklin.
Now we all know that you are a big self-advertiser.
Puke.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Oct 13, 2007 1:36:04 AM
A comment and manual trackback: Another flaw associated with "book not magazine" is the date the blog was created (useless) instead of date posted. I quoted Alex and "c18" on my roundup post, with links to a much better solution.
Posted by: Scott Lawton (Blogcosm) at Oct 13, 2007 10:54:28 PM
Isn't "citing a blog" one of the final signs of the apocolypse?
Posted by: dave at Oct 15, 2007 10:36:58 AM
Yep, Revelations 4:5 "And yea the fools shall chatter, and call on each other for authority"
Posted by: SteveD at Oct 15, 2007 10:44:56 AM
Reading on in Revelations 4:6: "And to the west of Babylon, in the place called Faire-fak, you will find many teachers of error."
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Posted by: Mike at Oct 26, 2007 4:46:30 AM
PETER TEIMAN Franklin here,
It is interesting how blogs have begun to transmit scientific ideas even faster than journals.
PETER TEIMAN Franklin,
Sweden
Posted by: PETER TEIMAN Franklin here, at Feb 18, 2008 2:40:02 PM
PETER TEIMAN Franklin here,
One of the most important aspects of blogging is the ability to place ideas in a general forum prior to verification so as sto stimulate creative thought.
PETER TEIMAN Franklin,
Sweden
Posted by: PETER TEIMAN Franklin at Mar 6, 2008 3:35:35 PM
Posted by: 鑽石 at Apr 2, 2008 10:38:17 PM
