I was always taught that if you can find the same fact in three sources that don't reference a common source then it's "common knowledge" (you could find that fact so many places it doesn't warrant referencing). So in this case if one or two obits had a really unique fact (one of mine had an anecdote about getting into a brawl outside Senate chambers and subsequently being politically discredited) then I would reference it, but if the rest of the bio you write contains facts that are in all five I wouldn't reference them but pick the good ones as further reading or external links.
Laura Scudder
On 7/19/05, Fred Bauder fredbaud@ctelco.net wrote:
Clearly you should list each of the 4-5 online obituaries as sources.
Fred
On Jul 19, 2005, at 4:30 AM, J.F. de Wolff wrote:
There are many grey areas when dealing with plagiarism. Personally, when I write a biographical article I end up sifting through 4-5 online obituaries and merging the contents without much paraphrasing. Much of the information in those sources is second- hand and often equally unreferenced.
Where does one draw the line? When there is only one good-going source of material and this is paraphrased extensively, it should be referenced. There are many instances, however, where using the term "reference" would be a bit of an overstatement.
JFW
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