Benefits of citations.

What I found to be the most stimulating while reading this article was that citations can be used as a beneficial tool to make our work valuable. The reason was that citation is a meeting point between the rhetorical system of creating influence and power, and a system of exchanging credits for work done (Cozzens 1989). It can be used to persuade or to create a position in a field (Gilbert, 1976, 1977; Latour, 1987). Citations are seen as a normative form of symbolic currency for paying intellectual debts (Robert K. Merton’s 1973). The writer also gives the taxonomy of motives for including a citation.  The four categories suggested are Argumentation, Social Alignment, Mercantile Alignment, and Data.  Argumentation is done in order to support a standpoint, for example including citations which are relating to and making comparisons with previous research. Social Alignment indicates motive for citing is found in the author’s identity or self-concept like Gilbert (1977) wryly noted that ‘respected papers may be cited in order to shine in their reflected glory even if they do not seem closely related to the substantive content of the report’ (p. 116). Mercantile Alignment is done in order to gain credit of various kinds, for example Costas et al. (2012) found that long reference lists are thought to signify a broader knowledge base and a more ambitious approach. The last is Data which is used so that the literature cited is used as data by the citing author, for example comparing and combining the results of previously published studies can reveal patterns in the results, thus indicating strengths and weaknesses in the theories and methods under scrutiny. The whole article gave the information on various reasons to include citation and I will keep this information in mind while including citation in my research paper.   

An idea that I found to be problematic was Willett’s (2013) findings; it is very difficult to draw any certain conclusions about citing authors’ motives when reading a finished paper. The reason was if the author wanted to take a citation as a delimitation, that is to show that the points made in the cited work are not relevant, we may mistake the citation as a self-image motive. 

References

Article’s full reference (APA)[1]:  Erikson, M., & Erlandson, P. (2014).

A taxonomy of motives to cite. Social Studies of Science, 44(4), 625-637