On why little things matter (or you better get your citations right).
When I was a #PhDstudent, my faculty beat into my head three principles.
1. Never quote or paraphrase without attribution.
2. Always report complete citations.
3. Track citations as you write.
While I heard, I still found myself scrambling to find citations- when due dates crept up on me.
Why was it so important?
My faculty felt ...
Ethics - I was taught to err on the side of citation, esp. if the idea was novel & attributable to a specific source.
Quality - incomplete citations signaled reviewers that you were lazy or sloppy. How could a reviewer trust you to get the analysis right if you could not get the citations right?
Time - it was not very efficient to spend time tracking down little things - so get it right the first time - & focus on developing your ideas.
So what happened?
I thought that my faculty were overly #paranoid. I didn't think reviewers actually read the references. Who had time?
I didn't think anyone would reject a paper for sloppy citations. I figured, that I could fix the citations later after the paper was accepted. So, I submitted a journal paper with a less-than-perfect works cited.
Never have I been so wrong.
While I did not get accused of #plagiarism (bc I had not screwed up citing work), one reviewer identified every single missing citation, noted where I was missing a page & volume numbers, & concluded that they had no confidence in the quality of my work. They posed the question: what else did I do sloppily?
As I recollect, that paper was swiftly #rejected.
The Senior #Editor report concluded - While your ideas have promise, the quality of your work does not evoke confidence that you will be able to navigate the #reviewprocess successfully.
My faculty were correct.
I was reminded of this experience recently when my team received the #galleys of a paper that had been through five revisions.
Somewhere along the way, we had failed to complete 20+ references.
Perhaps, bc the #firstauthor had done so much work, I spent some time quietly cursing & cleaning up the references.
Truthfully, we were lucky to have the paper #accepted.
So, what to do?
1. use a software package to curate your citations. I like #Endnotes. My students swear by #Mendeley; I'm sure there are others.
It doesn't matter - use one.
2. negotiate citation management with your team. It only works if everyone uses the same software or one person is responsible for managing the citations.
3. as you write, insert citations in the margins. Putting citations in software is distracting while writing, so I use the comment feature in word.
4. pay attention to what the #journal wants. There are still crazy formats out there.
5. quality check after formatting. The #software isn't perfect. Spot check.
Paying attention to the citations increases your chances of earning a revision or acceptance.
The little things matter!
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