Hi folks,

Do you normally cite conference papers or short reports that have limited information when writing an academic paper? I kind of want to talk about this one study but it seems sort of pointless or at best limited when it is a one page report and so I can't see anything about how methodologically sound the study was (reliability ratings etc). It didn't find a bunch of stuff that we would expect to find (and what it did find is contradictory to what I found - so you can see why I would want to talk about it if it were a full paper with enough detail to appraise...) Any advice would be appreciated!

Tudor

Hi. You do not have to cite it if you do not mention it in your study. If you have enough bibliography, it is fine. Normally you mention the most important studies in the same area which are more likely to be journals and high ranked conferences. But if you are going to mention something in the methodologies in this paper, cite it.

Only cite something, if it is relevant and scientifically credible. It is doesn't explain the methodology and isn't reproducible you can ignore it, most other people will.

I would not cite conference papers because they have not gone through a rigorous peer-review. There are some amazing research b being presented at conferences, but we must unfortunately wait for it to be published. I would contact the author and let them know you enjoyed their paper and are looking forward to a published piece in which you can cite for the future, it is always good to hear that your research has impact. :)
If the short report comes from a reputable research centre in the field, then that is citable.

Hi, it is very relevant but it is only 1 page long. It is a 1 page special short issue from a reputable journal so presumably had a peer review. But I can't see what measures they used etc in any detail so I can't access its quality and so feel reluctant about citing it (by citing I mean saying "Blake et al (1995) examine the rate of..." ). But then again, since they say they looked at what I am looking at, it is highly relevant. Hmm... predicament!

Oh, if it's a journal, than that's fine! I thought you were referring to conference papers. But yeah, I see your hesitation using it with limited details on methods. That is a predicament, might be one to get supervisor advice on. :)

Thanks Nad75. Yeh I was confused - it looked like a conf paper cos it was so short!

I think I'll omit it from the lit review of the paper I'm writing but just let my mentor know about it when I send her the draft. That way, if she thinks it should be included, I can edit it in. Thanks for your help folks : )