"Address for private use" phrase

By Anonymous on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 17:55

Forums

While I completely agree with excluding postal and e-mail addresses from published citations for privacy purposes, I have a hard time understanding the need to include a specific phrase, for example,

    [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE].

And I don't understand why we would want that phrase to be in small caps which tend to distract the reader. Maybe it is a holdover from my software design days where we often used all caps and square brackets to indicate a variable where the user should substitute real information for a placeholder name.

When I first read Evidence Explained I wondered if the phrase was included as a reminder to the researcher that she should have the detailed contact information in private files, but not publish it publicly. No one else seems to have interpreted this the same way (smile) as there are hundreds of citations online now using the exact phrases found in EE.

There must be some good reason for this phrase and for small caps that I haven't thought of yet. I tend to follow EE and can usually understand the whys behind the principles. I would like to know how others perceive the use of and need for this phrase in citations.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 05/16/2012 - 19:15

DPWayne wrote:

>When I first read Evidence Explained I wondered if the phrase was included as a reminder to the researcher that she should have the detailed contact information in private files, but not publish it publicly. No one else seems to have interpreted this the same way (smile) as there are hundreds of citations online now using the exact phrases found in EE.

 

Thank you for raising the question. Yes, this is exactly the reason why the instructional phrase appears in EE models that involve personal addresses. The phrase appears in square, editorial brackets and the wording used for the instruction is set in small capitals. As you note from your IT background, the square brackets and caps indicate a variable where the user should substitute real information for the placeholders.

Software developers who have incorporated Evidence Style templates into their programs have simply copied the phrase and the square editorial brackets. What we need them to do is to program that field for "private" addresses so that an address will appear in our own databases but can be dropped when we print a report that needs to mask the address.

 

Submitted byDPWayneon Tue, 05/22/2012 - 09:28

Thanks for the clarification. And thanks for your efforts in helping us all in understanding citation fundamentals. Its an impossible task to try to cover every nitpicky detail even in a giant book like Evidence Explained. Setting up this forum was a great idea so all those citation discussions scattered in other mail lists can now be gathered in one palce for easy access.

Debbie

Submitted byDPWayneon Tue, 05/22/2012 - 09:32

IT'S an impossible task ...  gathered in one PLACE ...

Now I find the spell check button. (smile)

Submitted byjsuplickon Sun, 06/10/2012 - 10:01

Thanks for raising this question, Debbie, and for demystifying things, Elizabeth. Seeing this phrase in my software-generated reports has been annoying me no end. After posting this reply, I will be submitting a request to my software vendor to get the practice changed.

Good idea, Jean. We can't expect the software developers to know what we want if we don't let them know. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been bothered by this.

Most developers I have worked with over the years are open to changes when they see a need and the original design doesn't make it difficult or impossible to implement that change. Since we all use our software in different ways, the developer may not see something we see. Knowing this is not what users want to see and was not the original intent for inclusion of the phrase should help make the case.