NURSING AND EDUCATION PLATFORM

Referencing ahoy!

Have we gone overboard with referencing? Authors /researchers today must support their statements and also avoid plagiarism bythe use of references. However, does this not stint original thought?

Earlier works such as Freud or  Darwin did not overuse references, consisting of pure thought. Today as an author, I may have an original idea but find that somebody else has earlier stated it so must reference it to them. Indeed it is so bad, if I do have an original thought, I search the literature to ensure nobody else has had it!! Yet it is not always that such work is found by the author.There are indeed, good points to referencing but not all authors do it. This all concerns the lifting of ideas. When is an idea to beconsidered plagiarism? If I inform somebody else of my research idea and it is given to another person to research, is this not plagiarism? However, if people research the same topic they will inevitably identify similar sources andsimilar conclusions. Yet people who do research the same topics, are afraid tocollaborate in fear of ideas being stolen. How sad.Further, earlier references are needed for historical analysis. Yet the use of earlier references if frowned upon or neglected by today’s computer searches.

Further the availability of references is restricted by someUniversities who will not obtain references from abroad due to cost. It is not easy to access the British lending library either. This limits topics and research. Hence, the most commonly available reference is cited.

It seems that the art of thinking is restricted today. Is this because of the fear of challenges to the system?