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AcademicCitation
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesSince there are now a number of academic references in the PageDatabase that are cross-referenced on multiple pages, and since they will be exploding in number as I do my Masters, I would like academic citations to become LinkPatterns. I know WikiPedia uses a lot of academic citations as well. What the syntax for this would be, I'm not exactly sure, but I think we could figure it out.
Since I know and use APA-style, I'd prefer something like it, though I understand that it isn't really wonderful considering that the citations and the bibliography depend on each other in APA. For http://sunir.org/apps/vm I hacked the IEEE syntax [..., YYYY] as a LinkPattern. So we could do the same for (..., YYYY[a-z]) The [a-z] (optional) is to differentiate references by the same authors in the same year. Normally APA demands the [a-z] go in alphabetical order, but the Meatball-style doesn't have to be perfect. We can just manually increment the letters in the rare case of a collision.
If the links are to actual pages, then we could InternalTransclusion them at the footer of the page in proper reference-lexical order. Otherwise, we could try deriving PermanentAnchors if the system can detect what is in fact a reference, maybe through some special syntax, but then the references will be strewn throughout the system.
The Perl regular expression might get complicated, given the variances of APA e.g. (Quux Quuux Quuuux [QQQ] as qtd. in Flinstone & Rubble, 2001; Foo, n.d.-c), but we don't have to support all of APA, at least not initially. We can use other links as hacks in the meantime. -- SunirShah
- I was playing around with my own syntax for citations. Within text something like [See:shortname] is inserted. Where the references are there is a list with the full information of the cited source. e.g. Ref:shortname|type:journal|Author:Smart M|Title:The importance of something-a-rather|Journal:Psychological Medicine|Year:2004|Volume:4|Issue:2|Page:45-47]
- This allows the method of referencing to be easily switched from <sup>superscript number</sup> style, to (Something 1981) like that. Formatting would be completely consistent too.
- I've got a (sort of) example, which is very unfinished at http://www.girlza.com/ but it's served from my dial-up connection. And I'm not that sure if that's what this page is about, I just found it on google searching for wiki citation :-)
- But if you're interested (and I'm connected) look at Test stuff, Familial alzheimer disease and some others. Otherwise delete this or leave a message here or at girlza.com.
This format sounds a lot like [BibTeX].
- Cool. I'll have a look at that, and have a compare.
Other Examples
OrgPatterns? uses the notation BibRef-AuthorAuthor1999[a-z] e.g. OrgPatterns:BibRef-Berczuk1996, OrgPatterns:BibRef-MorabitoSackBhate1999, OrgPatterns:BibRef-Fraser1994a, OrgPatterns:BibRef-Fraser1994b.
Related
- Louis Menand summarizes his [The End Matter: A nightmare of citation].
- Bruno Latour describes how citations are used as defenses by scientists under siege: Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.
- [OpenURL] standard.
Export BibTex?
Making a citation from a wiki e.g in a paper or master thesis is awful, one reference per wiki or one per page? Will any reader ever search for the version cited? Will the page be deleted? Do I really have to record the time? So it would be marvellous if there was a link on the bottom line saying CiteThisPage which turns the page into citation mode:
- containing a URL pointing directly to the this revision of the page for copy&paste
- a Link: "This page as bibtex-reference" with the appropriate function. You may know this from the [ACM digital Library]. I suggest the author could be anonymous, "MeatBall Wiki" works as "Title" and the PageTitle? ist the "Pages"-field. As an alternative Meatball being the "Title" or the "Author" and the PageTitle? being the "Title" would work, but clutter your references list. Should also include date, time, the URN, whatever you need.
- A list of the Contributors who signed on the Page with similar bibtex-Links. "Author" field won't be "Anonymous" or "MeatBall Wiki" but the real author. -- CarstenSiedentopf
NB: There should be a URL in the Page that points directly to the version of the page, including a part like "&version=XX". As there is a versioning system somewhere in usemod, I hope this is possible. Maybe a WikiPedia:DOI would be a little oversized -- CarstenSiedentopf
See also Wiki:HowToCiteWiki.
- A most excellent idea! -- SunirShah
This could conflict with ForgiveAndForget? There are a few ways to do this. One is to only record the contributors to a page, but that means having a better page rename, and more "intelligent" refactoring tools, which is basically a pointless exercise. A better way is just do the Contributors: dance we already do, which also allows us to remove authors after we elide their text. However, this is also a pain in the butt. Doing both may not be a bad idea, actually, but that is another story.
As a side note, but not an end-note, I'm of the opinion that AcademicCitation styles are on the squirrelly side of nutty. As Menand talks about, there is no hope in hell of anyone getting them right. When FormOverContent overwhelms to this stupid degree, meaning is lost. It's only important if you can find the thing again. And as with everything in the DigitalNetwork age, a written citation is less valuable than a clickable citation. A UniformResourceLocator will be naturally correct if it works, whereas a traditional AcademicCitation is always indirect and thus vulnerable. The OpenURL? format is meant to address this concern. The DesignBibliography, due to the nature of InfiniteMonkey, actually solves the problem in the same way as ParaCite?, but for free. That is, it uses a "web service" (the wiki) that identifies resources with a canonical ID (the page ID, through WikiNameCanonicalization). -- SunirShah
I wrote an APA citation parser and formatter because what was available in CPAN sucked; these are much, much better. Generally, if your citation is close to being well-formed, the parser will figure it out. The formatter has yet to handle Ph.D. theses. I've made the modules available from http://sunir.org/monkey/AcademicCitation. You'll need Text::BibTeX?. -- SunirShah (July 17, 2006)
CategoryWikiTechnology CategoryAcademia