Citing books in academic research papers and theses

Students may tell us:

My ajarn has asked me to cite scholarly publications in my academic research paper or thesis. Is every book a scholarly publication?

We may answer:

No, that depends on the book.

As we know, popular books are written to amuse readers, or give the opinions of writers, or convince readers of a point of view. Scholarly books are written to share research findings with readers who may also be researchers. Some scholarly books may also be appreciated by general readers who are not specialists in a field. The student may then ask:

How can I tell a scholarly book from a popular one?

Our reply may be:

Look to see if there are notes in the book, whether footnotes or other documentation.

Like graduate students and ajarns, scholarly writers are careful to indicate where they found information, so that their readers may look up a source if they wish. This is not just so that whatever the writer states can be doublechecked by the reader. The writer may assume that some people reading the book are also researchers in the same field. They may have occasion to do research similar to that done by the writer. In that case, they will likely be interested to look at some of the research documents already examined by the writer. Helping these readers find these documents is a polite and courteous way of showing respect for them. These notes may be found at the bottom of pages in the book, at the end of each chapter, or at the end of the book.

Since some scholarly books do not have notes, we may add:

Look at how the book is written. Does it use words only used in a research seminar?

As all students know, in lectures ajarns use special vocabulary for many subjects that is only seen in specialized studies. These words are generally not known to the general reader. If the book has difficult words that are not usually used in everyday conversation outside of seminar rooms, it is likely to be a scholarly book. Words such as phenomenography and mathemagenic belong to a specific field of study. If a book on biology uses the following terms, assuming that readers will know what they mean, then it is probably a scholarly book:

• acetylcholine
• adenosine triphosphate
• allopatric speciation
• aneuploidy
• anticodon
• blastocyst
• cytosine
• deoxyribose
• dynein
• ecdysone
• efferent
• endemism
• epicotyl
• exocytosis
• facultative anaerobe
• monomer
• plasmolysis
• prokaryote

Native speakers of English who read many books will have no idea what these technical terms mean unless they are students of biology. Every academic field has its special vocabulary in this manner. Even if the words are not special for a technical field, if words used in a book are formal or extremely difficult, this may mean it is a scholarly book. In general, popular books are written to appeal to the widest range of readers. If a book has unusual vocabulary words, that may be a sign it was note written for a general readership, but for people who are already informed about a topic. Some difficult vocabulary words include:

• abrogate
• adumbrate
• alacrity
• antediluvian
• arboreal
• camaraderie
• concomitant
• emollient
• fallacious
• garrulous
• impecunious
• legerdemain
• proclivity
• pulchritude
• solipsism
• turpitude

Instead of using these difficult words, the writer might have expressed the same thing with simpler, more easily understood words. The fact that difficult words were used suggests that it is meant to be a scholarly publication. If the student ask for other clues about how to tell a scholarly book, we may add:

Who wrote the book?

If the person who wrote the book is an ajarn associated with a major university, this is a good sign the book is scholarly. Google the author’s name to find out. Another possibility:

Who published the book?

If the book’s publisher has the word university in its name, this suggests that it is a university press. University presses specialize in publishing new research by ajarns. Other publishers also publish scholarly books. If in doubt, Google the name of the publisher to see the sort of things they usually publish.

 

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)