The Misuse of Sources

Including the references consulted in one's research is a standard practice in the academe. It is a way of acknowledging and paying respect to scholars who gave ideas on how to go about one's work. Some people, out of ignorance or pride, tend to forgo citing their references and end up as plagiarists. It is only fitting then that we take some time out in at least jotting down good ideas found in every good book read before forgetfulness sinks in.

The need for citing references is all the more evident in scholarly journals. References that were consulted for the work can be found either at the end of the article or as footnotes. Citing references can be quite useful for readers so that they may be able to trace the paper trail which enabled the author to arrive at the conclusions that were reached in the article. Such information is most useful for verification purposes.

In the Philippines intellectual property rights is a most recent phenomenon. Despite its recentness it is reassuring to know that almost every academic in the country observes reference citations. Virtually every article is brimming with references!

Despite the virtues of reference citations I am quite disturbed as to how references are used in many articles. A quick count at some random article will reveal that there is an average of at least 7-10 references consulted for each work. Sad to say but despite the sheer number of works consulted there are times when the authors fail to do justice to the works they cite. Imagine citing big names like Plato only in passing without even contextualizing nor justifying the citation. For some scholars having an extensive reference lists with big names in them is enough for an article to qualify as "scholarly." This is obviously the case in the the social sciences and the humanities.

This Really should not be the case. Scholars should spend more time reflecting on their sources rather than merely citing this or that source with half baked ideas. It is worth knowing that the Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who is popular for revolutionizing Analytic Philosophy only had less than 10 books in his possession (Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Malcolm and Wright). He was not fond of reading but the little he read, he read well. As a result he came out with one of the most insightful works in Western Philosophy given his very few limited publications.

Perhaps it is best that we learn from Wittgenstein in treating references. Whatever reference at hand should be read and read well. After all, articles are written for the innovative insights that were supposed to be communicated and not the number of references cited.

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Works Cited:
The following images were derived from the following sources:

http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/2006_02_16-28_archives.html
http://aerade.cranfield.ac.uk/newsletter0503/journals.gif
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199247592

For further reading in Wittgenstein's life please read the excellent book
Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Norman Malcolm (Oxford University Press, 2001)