Citation Best Practices

Clear, transparent sourcing strengthens credibility and accelerates collaborative reasoning. This guide outlines how to cite responsibly inside ReasonSmith discussions.

Why Citations Matter

Allow others to verify claims rapidly.
Differentiate empirical findings from opinion or inference.
Reduce duplicate work by pointing to canonical references.
Expose assumption chains early (so disagreements localize).
Elevate discourse quality by rewarding precision.

Evidence Tiers (Use the Highest You Can)

Primary Data: Peer‑reviewed studies, official statistics, datasets.
Secondary Analyses: Meta‑analyses, systematic reviews, scholarly summaries.
Expert Consensus: Position statements, reputable institutional reports.
Technically Informed Commentary: Domain expert blogs / preprints (flag as such).
Tertiary / Popular Media: Journalism summarizing sources (scrutinize accuracy).
Anecdote / Personal Observation: Lowest generalizability (label clearly).

Inline Citation Pattern

Claim. (Author Year) or [short source tag]
Example: Global mangrove loss has slowed since 2000 (Goldberg 2020).
Example: Adoption plateaued after Q2 2024 [AcmeAnalytics-2024Q3].

Consistent, compressed tags keep threads readable. If multiple sources support a point, cite the strongest representative not a dump.

Minimal Citation Components

Type	Required	Recommended Fields
Journal Article	Author, Year, Title, DOI/URL	Journal, Volume(Issue), Pages
Dataset	Maintainer, Version/Date, URL	License, Retrieval Date (if volatile)
Report	Org, Year, Title, URL	Section/Page for specific figure
Preprint	Author, Year, Title, DOI/URL	Server, Version
News	Outlet, Author (if given), Date, URL	Archive link (optional)
Anecdote	Context + timeframe	Limitations

Good vs. Weak Citation Examples

Weak

"Studies show..." (which studies?)
Unlinked screenshot of a chart.
Blog claim w/out author or date.

Better

“Urban heat island intensity decreased (Zhao et al. 2022, Fig.3).”
Linked dataset with version hash.
Explicit preprint with DOI + limitations.

Disclose Limitations & Uncertainty

Briefly indicate: sample size constraints, methodological caveats, model assumptions, or contested status. This invites refinement instead of defensive pushback.

Common Missteps

Overcitation: Flooding references to signal strength—choose relevance over quantity.
Link Rot: Use durable URLs (DOI, archived copy) to ensure verifiability later.
Selective Quotation: Quote range or summarize full finding; avoid cherry‑picked clause.
Source Blindness: Treating preprint and peer review equally—flag status.
Secondary Source Looping: Citing an article that cites another; go upstream when possible.

Recommended Formatting Snippet

[Tag]: Author(s) Year. Title. Source / Journal. DOI/URL
[Zhao2022-UHI]: Zhao, L. et al. 2022. Global Urban Heat Trends. Environmental Research Letters. doi:10.xxxx/erl.####
[FAO2023-FishStat]: FAO 2023. Global capture production dataset v2023. URL (accessed 2025-08-01).

Integrating Citations in ReasonSmith

Use concise inline tags, then optionally collect full entries in a concluding block.
Group related evidence: one concise paragraph + citations, not interleaving a link every sentence.
When contesting a source, specify which element (method, scope, interpretation) you dispute.
Invite scrutiny: “Let me know if you want the raw data slice for this.”