From: smoliar@iss.nus.sg
Subject: Re: Online Citation Formats (Was Re: Postings on sci.virtual-worlds
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 91 09:21:39 SST



In article <1991Aug14.200948.6499@milton.u.washington.edu>
Carrie.Heeter@ibm.cl.msu.edu (Carrie Heeter) writes:

>Tracking someone you have never communicated with directly down, explaining
>how 
>and why you want to cite them, and asking permission introduces a whole
>dynamic
>of approval and obligation which I feel is inappropriate, unnecessary and
>interferes
>with scholarship.

Carrie has already observed that we disagree on this matter.  The best I can do
to support my case is point to how I put it into practice.  An example may be
found on page 369 of Volume 48, Number 3 of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.  This is
the final page of my review of Marvin Minsky's THE SOCIETY OF MIND.  A bulletin
board article posted by Bob Kohout on comp.ai presented some concrete evidence
contradicting a statement Minsky had made about split brains.  I simply
observed that Minsky's theory was "at odds with certain results in the
published literature."  At this point I inserted a footnote saying, "I
wish to thank Bob Kohout for pointing this out to me."  I happened to
be working on the review when I read Bob's article.  Since the bulletin
board system is specifically set up to allow for personal mail response,
as well as follow-up articles, I sent a message to Bob (whom I have yet
to meet) explaining my situation and expressing my intentions.  After receiving
his approval, I sent him a draft of my manuscript.  As I originally stated, I
regard my actions as those of courtesy, rather than "a whole dynamic of
approval and obligation"; and Bob certainly did not seem put off by what
Carrie seems to regard as an intrusion.  In summary, then, I feel that my
actions were entirely appropriate, necessary (at least within the bounds
of common courtesy), and more a reinforcement of the scholarship being my
review than an interference.

(By the way, I realize that this may not be the best forum for discussion, but
this bulletin board is dealing with a "hot" topic.  Information is coming out
here much faster than in the published literature, so I suspect many of us
shall have to worry about the right way to incorporate material we read here
into material we are writing.  All I really wanted to do was set my previous
experiences on the table.)

---------

Stephen W. Smoliar; Institute of Systems Science
National University of Singapore; Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Kent Ridge, SINGAPORE 0511
smoliar%iss.nus.sg@nuscc.nus.sg  (USE THIS ADDRESS;  VARIANTS MAY NOT WORK)