Understanding the Citation and Way Forward

Research writing is a complex and arduous process that requires valid, concise, and accurate information. The writing process requires significant source from the findings of current work and from the existing or published studies. Thus, good research writing must be associated with good citations. Citation is the academic marker to represent where the information is sourced. Referencing is the action of giving credit to the published article when the information is utilized while writing a research paper.[1] Citation is the way to disseminate the published findings when the information had contributed during research analysis. Citation should be made when a published study provides best work or content can be related.[2] In the recent days, citation is considered to be providing merit for the sourced information and hence it helps in measuring the impact of research or scholarly work. Hirsch index (H index) measures author level metrics on productivity and impact of scholarly research. In other words, more the research work is cited, higher is the value. H index value can be calculated for an individual researcher, group of researchers, department, or university. Thus, it can be said that H index helps in ranking the researcher and research work. Hence, researcher must be ethical while citing an information from published source. Self-citation is referencing your own previously published data. This can be done when the information is adequately relevant and must be avoided when it not required.

In recent days, technology-assisted reference management is available in the form of software package. There are various software that are available either for free of cost or premium package such as Endnote, Refworks, Zotero, Reference manager, and many others. These software allow one to archive and organize the citation information of published material. The software also help in maintaining consistency of reference styling and reduce risk of overlapping citation.[3] These software must be considered as a way forward for research writers who are inundated with source of information.

European Journal of Dentistry (EJD) follows in-text citations, where the source of information can be identified in the text at the body of manuscript. The EJD follows American Medical Association (AMA) style of referencing. In this style of referencing, in-text citation is made with Arabic numerals and sequentially numbered list of references is documented at the end of research paper. AMA reference is written by listing authors at the beginning and followed by the title of research paper, then Index Medicus journal title abbreviation and ends with year, volume, and page numbers of the published article. [Table 1] shows citation style of journal, chapter in a book, book, thesis, government publication, online article, and symposium article.

Table 1 AMA style of citation

Description of citation resource	AMA style of citation
Abbreviation: AMA, American Medical Association.
Citing a journal	Newburger JW, Takahashi M, Burns JC, et al. The treatment of Kawasaki syndrome with intravenous gamma-globulin. N Engl J Med 1986; 315:341–347
Citing a chapter in a book	Toma H. Takayasu’s arteritis. In: Novick A, Scoble J, Hamilton G, eds. Renal Vascular Disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1995:47–62
Citing a book	Stryer L. Biochemistry. 2nd ed. San Francisco: WH Freeman; 1981:559–596
Citing a thesis	Stern I. Hemorrhagic Complications of Anticoagulant Therapy [Ph.D. dissertation]. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University; 1994
Citing a government publication	Food and Drug Administration. Jin Bu Huan Herbal Tablets. Rockville, MD: National Press Office; April 15, 1994. Talk Paper T94–22
Citing an online article	Rosenthal S, Chen R, Hadler S. The safety of acellular pertussis vaccine vs whole-cell pertussis vaccine [abstract]. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med [serial online]. 1996; 150:457–460. Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/scipubs/journals/archive/ajdc/vol_150/no_5/abstract/htm. Accessed November 10, 1996
Citing symposium article	Eisenberg J. Market forces and physician workforce reform: why they may not work. Paper presented at: Annual Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges; October 28, 1995; Washington, DC

This editorial message is aimed to reach target audience of EJD to advise about importance of crediting published study when an information is archived for their writing and guide them with advanced technology resources to reduce their challenges while citing others’ work.

Conflict of Interest

None declared.

• References

• 1 Masic I. The importance of proper citation of references in biomedical articles. Acta Inform Med 2013; 21 (03) 148-155
• 2 Nieminen P, Carpenter J, Rucker G, Schumacher M. The relationship between quality of research and citation frequency. BMC Med Res Methodol 2006; 6: 42
• 3 Glassman NR. EndNote 7.0. J Med Libr Assoc 2004; 92 (03) 383-384