Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
is directly pertinent. Quotation also allows you to clearly distinguish between what
you are saying and what others have said, and is far preferable to plagiarism.
Cited material often uses different terminology, spelling, or notation, or is written
for an entirely different context. When you use results from other papers, be sure
to show the relationship to your own work. For example, a reference might show a
general case, but you use a special case; then you need to show that it is a special
case. If you claim that concepts are equivalent, ensure that the equivalence is clear
to the reader.
References that are discussed should not be anonymous.
Other work [16] has used an approach in which…
Marsden [16] has used an approach in which…
Other work (Marsden 1991) has used an approach in which…
The modified versions provide more information to the reader, and “Marsden” is
easier to remember than “[16]” if the same paper is discussed later on.
Likewise, self-references should not be anonymous—it should be clear to the
reader that references used to support your argument are your own papers, not inde-
pendent authorities.
Smith et al. [10] found compressed lists to be…
In Smith et al. [10], we found compressed lists to be…
Other references that are not discussed can just be listed.
Better performance might be possible with string hashing techniques that do
not use multiplication [11, 30].
Avoid unnecessary discussion of references.
Several authors have considered the problem of unbounded delay. We cite,
for example, Hong and Lu (1991) and Wesley (1987).
Several authors have considered the problem of unbounded delay (Hong and
Lu 1991; Wesley 1987).
Two styles of citation are illustrated above. One is the ordinal-number style, in
which entries in the reference list are numbered and are cited by their number, as in
“…is discussed elsewhere [16]”. The other is the name-and-date or Harvard style—
my preferred style—in which entries are cited by author name using either square or
round brackets:
… is discussed by Whelks and Babb (1972).
… is discussed elsewhere (Whelks and Babb 1972).
… is discussed by Whelks and Babb [1972].
… is discussed elsewhere [Whelks and Babb 1972].
