La citazione bibliografica nei percorsi di ricerca : dalla Galassia Gutenberg alla rivoluzione digitale

Quoting sources and texts while doing research has a role and a value well beyond the moral obligation to acknowledge previous works and the scientific duty to represent the grounds on which a research work is built. Bibliographic citations connect with a thin thread features of science and scientific communication which are apparently different and unrelated. The verification of sources, the replicability and dissemination of research outputs, bibliometrics and research assessment – which affect funding and the tenure track of researchers - the oligopoly of some publishers, the escalating prices of scientific journals, the development of mainstream and fringe science, knowledge divide and the Open Access movement are all very hot issues which are somehow derived from bibliographic citations. The book envisages the grounds, purposes and forms of bibliographic citations and puts forward two different perspectives. The first is based on a historic viewpoint: the intellectual and scientific aims of citation develop into a wider use enhanced by the digital environment and end up in what can be considered as improper use, a sort of industrial degeneration. The second deals with the methodology of bibliographic citation and suggests – after analyzing the most popular systems – a range of templates which help the reader understand and manage different citation styles and achieve the correct representation of information resources, both analogical and digital, as well as the correct handling of bibliographic references in texts which will be published digitally. The work ends with the proposal of a methodological approach to research, and presents the available information sources and the tools necessary to exploit the potential of bibliographic citations in a digital environment.