This thread reminds me of John Rhodes' review of the classic, "The Algebraic Theory of Semigroups, Vol. I" by Clifford and Preston. This exceptional account of the state of semigroup theory in the early 60s contained more than copious citations, to authors for published works, to colleagues for ideas, and even to the extent that solutions to problems were cited. Rhodes, his acerbic wit at hand, commented on this incredible documentation of where even the simplest ideas had originated, was led to comment, "it's surprising that the authors didn't cite Gutenberg for the type." Mike Mislove On Nov 24, 2004, at 7:09 PM, jim stasheff wrote:
Dusko Pavlovic wrote:
i was under the impression that the authors in all sciences consider it to be a matter of good taste to be generous in references and acknowledgements, and not frugal; to be inclusive and not exclusive. people provide as many references as they can, to let the readers track their ideas, and make the connections. useful papers don't cite just their parent papers, but also their grandparent papers, and brothers and sisters. especially when the parents so clearly and generously recognize their debts, as peter's original postings did.
-- dusko
not all authors - unfortunately though in many cases it may be a lack of knowledge/scholarship
generosity and scholarship in references is to be applauded but acknowledgements in a certian science can be so profuse naming everybody the author had a slighly related conversation with there by diluting the major influences
another extreme in tha same science is to give a bibliogrpahy without titles this has multiple disadvantages at one conference to a mixed audience (math and ...) the math organizer insisted references include title to which a participant repsonded what if you don't know the title!!!
jim
=============================================== Professor Michael Mislove Phone: +1 504 862-3441 Department of Mathematics FAX: +1 504 865-5063 Tulane University URL: http://www.math.tulane.edu/~mwm New Orleans, LA 70118 USA =============================================== 26-Nov-2004 14:25:47 -0400,1826;000000000000-00000000