Citations

19 January 2015 Most commandments are intimidating—but not these. These are designed to take the intimidation out of the citation process that causes so much angst and rebellion.

16 January 2015 History researchers frequently ask how much needs to be cited to support an assertion. If, say, we find an assertion in a journal article, a monograph on our topic, a generally reliable website, and a couple of original documents, do we have to cite them all? The answer is easy enough if ...

8 December 2014 Across centuries of recorded history, many classes of people have had to legally register themselves—voters, military-aged men, free people of color in slave regimes, aliens during a time of war, and "just plain folk" on the occasions of their births, marriages, and deaths.

9 October 2014 Everything has a creator. But what do we do when we have three creators creating three different but connected things and we have to pack them all into one citation?

3 October 2014 Filmed and fiched materials at a library or archive can carry two identification systems: 1) the identification created by the producer; and 2) the cataloging data created by the library. If the ...

21 September 2014 Veteran's pensions. Widow's pensions. Surviving children's pensions. Step-children's pensions. All of these have some common denominators and some differences. Here are three handy tips:

4 September 2014 Citations exist in two stages, working notes and final form. This input vs. output issue is especially important for history researchers, given our use of so many original materials. Yes, EE does provide formats for many types of sources not treated by classic citation guides; but the more-important issue is not format. It's substance. What's critical is ...

18 August 2014 It happens so often. A researcher cites a census—typically accessed online, these days—but does not cite the online provider. Does it matter?

4 August 2014 Or to put it another way: a kirchenbüch is a klokkerbøk is a church book. Regardless of the country in which we do research, our citations to church books have ...