[Air-l] Re: advice please:online citations

[Joe Walther]

>Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 08:11:23 -0600 (CST)
>From: Ed Lamoureux <ell at hilltop.bradley.edu>
>Subject: [Air-l] advice please:online citations
>
>One of the authors we're publishing is writing about a film. He used a
>large number of quotations and citations from web sites dedicated to film
>reviews . . .
>his citations don't follow APA exactly . . . instead of noting the most
>current location of the materials, he notes the url as of the date he
>retrieved the piece, and that date. 
>The format is close enough that I can let the technical/stylistic issue
>slide. However, some of the materials are no longer available at the
>specified locations.  I've asked him to go back and find alternatives; and
>told him that I will require a note that offers hard copy for interested
>readers who contact him.
>But let's assume for a moment that by the time I get the thing in print,
>25% of his cited stuff isn't available. Should I publish the piece at all?
>Do we need to set specific editorial policy about web-based
>documentation?

Two issues: Is this the prescribed approach, and is it worth publishing if
it's dated?

The current APA publication manual does dictate that one indicate the date
that information was retrieved (in addition to the date that it appears to
have been written if that is available).  This is presumably because things
do indeed tend to move or disappear on the Internet, and an author cannot
reasonably be held accountable for such shifts (although a last-minute,
pre-publication search for the most recent location is probably a good idea
if someone can make the effort).

If the references will be very obsolete by publication or soon after, then
another question may be appropriate: Do the references lead to sources that
readers may want to study themselves, or do the references indicate how the
author went about finding data? References should help readers reconstruct
the precedents that led to the conclusions an author offered.  I can see
some cases where it may not have been the content, but the way the author
searched (even if the specific targets of the search are gone), which would
provide value to readers.  

--Joe W.


================================================= 
Joseph B. Walther, Associate Professor 518.276.2557 
http://www.rpi.edu/~walthj/   walthj at rpi.edu
Editor, The Journal of Online Behavior http://www.behavior.net/JOB/ 
==================================================