An answer about citations

[Geoff Read]

I had a browse around for resources and it wasn't hard to find many.
Science-oriented ones are not so easy to find however. Those in the 
humanities are seemingly much more comfortable with internet cites. Or 
perhaps they just talk more on the net!

Here is one approach to www citations:

     "To cite files available for viewing/downloading via the World
Wide Web, give the  author's name (if known), the full title of the
work in quotation marks, the title of the complete work if applicable in
italics, the full http address, and the date of visit."  

More detail at: URL:http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html

Someone else recommended citing the modification date (which seems
more sensible to me) rather than date of visit to the Url. 

Meta guides to citation guides are at:
 
     http://rooster.bgsu.edu/URLcite.html
     http://loki.sonoma.edu/library/Resources/citation.html
     http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/I/training/citation/citing.htm


What about this quote? "The notion that electronic documents are
ephemeral because electrons are invisible is naive. In fact they are more
secure in the sense that they can be duplicated indefinitely without
error." (Haines Brown)

However, that is also naive. Without special precautions, they can also be
altered indefinitely, which may be useful and appropriate for the
resource-guide things that WWW currently is best at, but is also where I
see the main problem to be solved for acceptance as an alternative
instead of as an adjunct to paper print science. (Sorry, I am probably
revisiting my views here).

I also found some interesting thoughts on internet publishing, citation,
copyright and fair use at:

http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/papers/cyberprop.html

inter alia: "An author owns his or her words from the time they are
written, whether that writing be permanently inscribed on a dead tree, or
momentarily inscribed on the screens of readers. The mere fact that a work
is of a transitory nature should not negate its protection under copyright
laws." (Janice R. Walker).


--
   Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>