Bod Notbod wrote:
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:40 AM, michael
west<michawest(a)gmail.com> wrote:
We cite books which aren't available online
and in some cases out of
print. I don't see the problem.
I take your point. Although a difference strikes me. I'm not sure it's
valid but I'll throw it out there.
Where a book (possibly out of print) is cited we should be giving
details of Title, Author, ISBN and possibly Edition.
With newspaper links we should be giving Newspaper, Journalist, Access Date...
I'm wondering if, if newspaper content goes behind a pay wall, we
would really have to be giving citation information that pertains to
the actual printed copy of the article, ie, Newspaper, Print Date and
Page Number?
Also, though you don't see a problem and are comfortable with how you
would handle this development I wonder how you can be sure how editors
(particularly anon and policy ignorant editors) will respond to this
new turn of events. People will have an entirely reasonable
expectation that if they click on a citation link that they will,
indeed, be taken to a page that backs up any given assertion (and not
a registration screen). If that doesn't happen they may respond by
removing the link and the content it was supposed to verify.
Well, removing a reference that supports a fact in an article, without
providing a better reference instead, is quite a serious offence in our
terms. Note the tension between "you can edit this page right now",
which is part of the credo, and "you can verify this fact right now",
which isn't and never has been, however much some people have muddied
the water on verifiability. The obvious solution is the one I would
normally apply where possible: reference in parallel to a paper source
and and online source, even if the best online source is inferior to the
best paper source (which is typical in academic areas). So online free
sources and online subscription sources, within reason, should co-exist.
"Within reason" implies this is mainstream information, nothing very
private.
We can actually expect some sort of shake-out if newspaper journalism
becomes more subscription-led, where public libraries subscribe to
certain important and reliable newspapers.
Charles