→As I indicated in my previous post, there is a wealth of easily accessible material online and in print about how to reference sources in social science and humanities disciplines. There is no problem, then, getting information about how to document sources. But it can be challenging explaining why research papers need references to sources integrated into the text, rather than just a list of sources at the end.
Addressing this issue gets to the heart of evidence-based writing, and that is not immediately apparent since references appear so distinct from writing. In whatever form they come, citations are obviously different from prose writing, but they are a form of communication, just as writing is, and references relate to all of the goals of a research paper.
Hacker and Sommers say that writing a paper “that is based on sources” involves “three main challenges: (1) supporting a thesis, (2) citing your sources and avoiding plagiarism, and (3) integrating quotations and other source material.”[1] Documenting sources is a part of all these challenges, so it follows that referencing sources is integral to the process of writing a research paper. The technical process of adding citations may be external to the act of normal typing, but documenting sources should be part of the layered process of analytical writing. From being created in draft form [author X about this issue] and appearing as signals to yourself to [put source here], references transform into polished versions in effectively written passages.
One way of seeing the integral nature of referencing to evidence-based writing is to recognize the integration of sources in different genres. In everyday journalism, for example, source material is referred to constantly without there being any in-text citations, footnotes, or endnotes. “According to police (…),” one reporter might say on a news-broadcast. “Studies suggest that (…),” writes a newspaper columnist. The staff writer for an online news provider cites the statements of political opponents regarding an issue. In examples such as these the source is included in the text or speech itself, and not contained in a separate communication. Their purpose is to provide insight into a story, and demonstrate variation in opinions that matter for the story.
We refer to sources in commonplace communication too. For example, we cite the weather report in advising our partner/roommate/friend about what to wear, or we refer to consumer reviews in debating which new laptop to buy. Here the point of referencing is to support our views.
As a teacher, I have stressed Hacker’s and Sommers’s three points as reasons to reference. I have also emphasized two points Rampolla makes about why documenting sources is necessary: “First, citing your sources gives them appropriate credit. Second, bibliographic information enables readers to look up your sources to evaluate your interpretation of them or to read more extensively from them.”[2]
I have also tried to approach the question of why sources need to be documented in research papers using two broad and linked principles: sharing and transparency.
Since research papers are about, yes, research, writers should strive to share their research. The writing should make source material clear. The references should offer, at minimum, clear information about the source. Together, the writing and references should make the research basis for the paper transparent.
It’s important to add that these are difficult to achieve ideals. Some academics do not achieve them! But they are still good reasons to reference.
[1] Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, A Writer’s Reference, Eighth Edition (Bedford/St Martin’s: Boston and New York, 2015), 395
[2] Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, Seventh Edition (Bedford/St Martin’s: Boston and New York, 2012), 111-2
