[LINK] Copyright questions

[Roger Clarke]

At 10:36 +1100 25/3/11, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>A subsequent question:
>I have come across a webpage which references an article as:
>Author, Title, Organisation: (available on the Internet)
>Is this, rather vague, reference acceptable/appropriate. (There are
>multiple copies on the internet)

There are multiple 'standards'.

But they come down to:
(a)  'more detail than that please!'
(b)  add '[last] accessed on <date>'

Why on earth would an author not provide the URL that they used?

One reason is to cover their tracks, and hence by omitting the URL 
one invites suspicion.

The criterion from a research perspective is 'enough information must 
be provided in a reference to enable each citation to be checked for 
authenticity and for the relevance of the nominated work to the use 
made of it in the new text'.  (My words.  Sorry, but I was too lazy 
to chase down a real authority).

Note that multiple, alternative sources is nothing new.  Many paper 
publications appear in multiple editions, both regionally and over 
time, and have commonly been 're-typeset' (or its equivalent) and 
hence the pagination differs.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

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Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University