Interestingness and the essence of citation

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a new insight into the reasons why authors cite.Design/methodology/approachThe authors argue that, based on philosophical ideas about the essence of things, pure rational thinking about the role of citations leads to the answer.FindingsCitations originate from the interestingness of the investigated phenomenon. The essence of citation lies in the interaction between different ideas or perspectives on a phenomenon addressed in the citing as well as in the cited articles.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings only apply to ethical (not whimsical or self‐serving) citations. As such citations reflect interactions of scientific ideas, they can reveal the evolution of science, revive the cognitive process of an investigated scientific phenomenon and reveal political and economic factors influencing the development of science.Originality/valueThis article is the first to propose interestingness and the interaction of ideas as the basic reason for citing. This view on citations allows reverse engineering from citations to ideas and hence becomes useful for science policy.

Citation analysis and the development of science: A case study using articles by some Nobel prize winners

“…Next we want to answer the following questions: What is the motivation for citation, and what is the role that a citation plays during research? We have elaborated on this (Liu, ; Liu & Rousseau, 2012b, ). Here we briefly recall the main points.…”

“…It is this interest that leads to citing. In this sense, we may say that the essence of citation is interaction between different ideas or perspectives on a phenomenon that is addressed in the citing and cited articles (Liu & Rousseau, ). Citations can be considered historic remains left behind by these interactions during research (Cronin, ; Liu, ; Smith, ).…”

What drives citations of frontier application publications?

“…Indeed, journals of high quality may have been maintaining a more stringent gate-keeping role than others. In the most recent citation theory, Liu and Rousseau (2013) noted that interestingness could be another reason for citation. This may well be a characteristic of publications that find a home in journals of high quality.…”

“…The theory of Rousseau (1992 , 1998) states that the reasons that authors cite are because of ethics, a matter of shorthand, persuasion, number of authors and recently, interestingness ( Liu and Rousseau, 2013 ). Whilst borrowing from Gilbert Nigel (1977) regarding persuasion, Rousseau explained that persuasion arises when there is departure from issues of right and wrong.…”

Normalization of Deviation: Quotation Error in Human Factors

“…We cite as a form of data and argumentation which contributes to academic rigor (Saumure & Given, 2008). Social alignment is a form of locating the writer's claims within the wider disciplinary framework (Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1995;Myers, 1990) while mercantile claims is giving credit to related work and paying homage to peers (Liu & Rousseau, 2013). It is important then to accurately cite and represent the work of previous researchers.…”