The secret life of citations Science, Evidence, Convention Writing in the Health Professions

Evidence + Experience = Expertise The EBM/EBP Model: Evidence + Experience = Expertise Where does evidence come from? Established that Evidence + Experience = Expertise as the heart of the EBM model. We’re focusing on “evidence” in this class b/c literacy skills – reading and writing – are a big part of using evidence wisely. Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

Randomized Controlled Trial Animal research/Laboratory studies evidence comes from publication   Meta- Analysis Systematic Review     Randomized   Controlled Trial        Cohort studies          Case Control studies            Case Series/Case Reports           Animal research/Laboratory studies The EBM Pyramid We have discussed that evidence comes from publication, introduced a hierarchy for clinical value of publications (the “EBM Pyramid”), and discussed the way science makes use of language (technical meanings, denotative meanings, 3rd person objective tone, healthy mix of active/passive voice) but we haven’t discussed the larger frame in which science writing itself takes place – this is important b/c science writers, science readers, and the text that joins them all interact within this larger scientific frame/context and are governed by its expectations/conventions. Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

The cultural context we operate in: Science Scientific Conventions Language use Subheadings Relationship amongst ideas Scientific Conventions in Text – language use, format of article (IMRD for research; use of subheadings for everything) – conventions (behavioral rules connected to a larger value system) embody cultural values – the conventions develop in relationship to what is considered important/authoritative. So, how does science derive its authority? The scientific perspective – why cite the following opening sentence? “Headache is a common disorder in the population. 1-3” Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

The Scientific Method: Question  Test  Results = Evidence (repeat ad infinitum) Put very simply, science as an enterprise establishes/assesses/garners/proffers/reveres evidence which results from the scientific method (and from this method ONLY – data-driven) as the foundation of its authority. Thus, there has been a lot of effort put into creating conventions that demonstrate evidence-based authority – statistics as a discipline is one result of this effort. The IMRD format in writing is another. Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

citation is the convention governing the communication Evidence needs to be communicated! Thus born is the citation: the explicit, overt marker of who created what -- citation is the convention governing the communication of who is responsible for the evidence/information used in scientific prose. Since the authority of evidence is communicated via the publication of results (data), we need a convention for indicating where the results came from in the first place. This process is called “attribution” – the explicit, overt acknowledgment of who created what. The writing behavior (what people in the culture actually do) is called “citation” – citation is the convention governing the communication of who is responsible for the evidence/information used in a piece of science prose. Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

American Psychological Association American Medical Association APA Style Guide American Medical Association AMA Style Guide Council of Science Editors CSE Style Guide (Diana Hacker) And just like cultures have sub-cultures, science has sub-disciplines. Each discipline is fond of a particular set of rules for expressing the convention of citation, hence APA, AMA, CSE, etc. These are the three styles most commonly used in health and biological science publications. Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

Practical Approach to Citation Behavior Join the great conversation! Well, maybe… Practical Approach to Citation Behavior Every sentence has intellectual history – an evidence trail Citation is the behavior that makes the trail known. The use of citations in science writing -- how they are actually incorporated into text -- is the first cultural convention governing communication to trip up most young scientific writers.  We all know that we are supposed to use sources and to cite them properly, but the humanities-oriented education we received in high school has not prepared us for how to cite correctly in science.  Ideologically, the process is explained as "joining the great scientific conversation" -- this is wonderful, and true, but doesn't help you make the correct choices when having to add citations to text and avoid being accused of plagiarism, intentional or unintentional.   Here's a more practical means of understanding citation behavior in scientific prose – and should seem obvious now in the light of evidence-as-authority: in science, every sentence has intellectual history – an evidence trail. Citation is the behavior that makes the evidence trail explicit/known.  Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

Only two options– either a citation is present or it is not. If a sentence does NOT have a citation, then … the sentence is common knowledge and requires no citation (at this early stage in your career, you don’t get to claim any discipline-specific knowledge as common knowledge); the sentence is a clear and unambiguous continuation of the previous sentence (e.g. when discussing methods and results of studies); the sentence is an original contribution by the writer (thus, subsequent to publication, all references to this piece of information must be attributed to the writer of the paper). If the sentence a has citation … The writer is attributing the information to the source/s indicated in the citation. Because intellectual history must be made immediately following the sentence, citations are provided after first mention in a text and for EVERY sentence presenting new information that is not clearly and unambiguously connected to the previous sentence. If every sentence has intellectual history associated with it, then every sentence gets cited somehow.  But it is a simple system -- there are only 2 ways that a sentence can end  either with or without an explicit citation. The presence or absence of an actual citation is the clue that tells the reader about the source:     If the sentence a has citation written at the end, then the writer is attributing the information to the source/s indicated in the citation. Because intellectual history must be made immediately following the sentence, citations are provided after first mention in a text and for EVERY sentence presenting new information that is not clearly and unambiguously connected to the previous sentence.     If a sentence does NOT have a citation written at the end, then one of 3 conditions are true: 1) the sentence is common knowledge and requires no citation (at this early stage in your career, you don’t get to claim any discipline-specific knowledge as common knowledge); 2) the sentence is a clear and unambiguous continuation of the previous sentence (e.g. when discussing methods and results of studies); 3) the sentence is an original contribution by the writer (thus, subsequent to publication, all references to this piece of information must be attributed to the writer of the paper). Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018

Citations have both ideological and practical value – here’s more of why they are of practical significance to you: Synthesizing Sources – The CYA Strategy for Avoiding Plagiarism while Writing in the Sciences Writing in the Health Professions, Mickey Schafer 11/16/2018