An Interactive Introduction to Organismal and Molecular Biology, 2021

BIBLIOGRAPHIES | 43
the scholarly journal article where the study was published. This link is a form of citation that will help lead you
to the original information.
Scientific Conversation
Citation also serves to show a record of how other sources impacted the current source. Scientific research
articles published in scientific journals always provide a list of citations, which show where the ideas,
techniques, and studies that were built upon by the current research came from. This reference creates a sort of
paper trail that helps other scientists better evaluate the new study and see how it fits with previous research. By
providing a list of references, an author invites other scientists to see for themselves if the ideas the author cites
are supported by evidence, if the assumptions he or she makes are justified, and if the techniques described by
others have been properly implemented. In this way, citation functions as a record of a conversation: how other
scientists’ work speaks to and informs new work.
Copyright Infringement and Credit
Another important function of citation is to identify the original creators of information and to give them
credit. In science, credit matters. A magazine or newspaper article only sometimes acknowledges the sources of
its arguments—the books the author read or the interviews conducted. Science, on the other hand, is scrupulous
about giving credit where credit is due. The bibliography or list of citations that you find in scientific research
articles serves to credit other scientists for ideas, techniques, and studies that were built upon by the current
research.
Legally and ethically, It’s important to not give the direct or indirect impression that someone else’s work
or ideas were written or created by you. When you hear the term plagiarism, it refers to this phenomenon.
For example, some of the content in this chapter was created by people other than the listed authors, and to
avoid plagiarism, we’ve given credit to the original authors through citation at the end of the chapter in the
“References” section. It’s crucial to use proper citation to indicate where that source material or idea originated.
If you use copyrighted work in your own creations without citation, it’s a copyright infringement—a legal
issue—in addition to the ethical issue of plagiarism.
Exercise