Sam Katz smkatz@gmail.com writes:
Let me comment on the original question. The correct citation is typically the oldest one known to the researcher, not the most popular.
This is the bit I think we often get wrong on Wikipedia: there's a tendency to cite popular expositions even when they're only a gloss on existing work. Perhaps unsurprising, since the popular expositions are known to more people (including to more Wikipedians). But something to look for. When I can, I try to replace or supplement citations to more "popular" works, like newspaper or magazine articles, trade-press books, etc., with older work from historians, researchers, scientists, etc., that those works are often popularizing. But it's a lot of work to make a significant dent in the tide of Wikipedia citations overall, since we have so many of them.
-Mark