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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxq!agk
From: agk@ihuxq.UUCP (Andy Kegel)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: referencing material off the net.
Message-ID: <400@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Dec-83 09:24:35 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.400
Posted: Tue Dec  6 09:24:35 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Dec-83 01:34:06 EST
References: <173@whuxle.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 15

Do I footnote private conversations?  Of course I recognize significant
contributions, especially if for publication.  If you read the bibliography
at the end of a paper carefully, you will sometimes note references like:
	[3] Private communication, Joe Schmoe, 1983.
If Joe made a significant contribution to your work, you owe it to him
to tell people.  To do otherwise is - to my mind - plagiarism, a vile
and heinous act.

I suggest the proper way to reference the net in a bibliography is to cite
it as a "private communication."  In a paper citing a number of net sources,
it seems reasonable to treat each news group as a pseudo-publication, e.g.,
	[33] Net.rumor, Dawn Disk, 5-5-83.

Signing off in 24 lines or less,
	-andy kegel, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, ihnp4!ihuxp!agk