I would like your help me solve a dispute on citation ethics. I will not say what side I am on, so I do not bias your decisions with my opinion.
Here is a review from an article, that I have divided into 4 consecutive parts:
«{I} Primate males usually concentrate their reproductive efforts towards females during the period of highest conception probability, i.e. the peri-ovulatory or fertile phase of the menstrual cycle [1–5].
{II}. However, non-reproductive copulations during pregnancy are not unusual among New World (capuchins: [1]) and Old World (sooty mangabeys: [2,] Hanuman langurs: [3], Phayre’s langurs: [4], rhesus macaques: [5], pig-tailed macaques: [6], stumptailed macaques: [7], Japanese macaques: [8], long-tailed macaques: [9], Assamese macaques: [10], Barbary macaques: [11], chimpanzees: [12], bonobos: [13]) primates.
{III}. However, many of these reports were based on observations of mounts, either with or without intromission and ejaculation, collected unsystematically, with inferences made about female reproductive state in the absence of endocrinological confirmation of pregnancy.
{IV}. The results from studies using systematic methods have produced different conclusions for different species; males of some species seem to discriminate pregnancy from the pre-conceptive period to some extent (Assamese macaques: [10], langurs: [4, 14]), whereas in other species pregnancy might be concealed (long-tailed macaques: [9], Barbary macaques: [11]).»
Please read the text carefully and answer the following questions:
1. Is it ok to say "the article says {I}"? Yes or no
2. Does {II} disprove {I}? Yes or no
3. If someone cited this article and reported {II} but did not report {I} or {III} or {IV} would you consider this bad citation practice? Yes or no
Here is the article if more information is required
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550261/
Hi Alexander,
A well stated question. For me, the answers are:
1. you can state 'the article...'. However, there is no real need to. The citation detail tells us that articles (this example gives more than one article i.e. 1-5) are referred to. It's the sort of practice that I would more expect from student assignments.
2. No - it's a different perspective. 'However' - usually implies this. I would argue that you have to explicitly state that something disproves or is 'opposing' something else.
3. Yes - it's bad practice to exclude citation - as long as it is not been included for the sake of it. The less citation there is - the less evidence is being presented and, therefore, a more valid claim that a more subjective bias is in place.
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