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In a master's thesis the author provided a seemingly incorrect citation. ( Link to paper citation 4)

The information is obviously correct but in the cited paper I couldn't find any reference to the information he cited. Is it ok to cite him?

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

If you want to refer to his work (i.e. his results, discussion or conclusions), you should cite it.

If you want a reference to the particular piece of information he cited (the sentences describing plasma etching before his call to ref. 4), then you should find a direct source: either a textbook or review on the topic. This would be much better than a research article (or thesis), especially one badly sourced.

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Why would a research article be better than a review? At least in my field, research articles tend to be much more carefully refereed than surveys or textbooks. – JeffE Sep 30 '12 at 21:07
What I meant is: if you want a reference for, e.g., how Smith’s formula applies to psychomechanics, you’d rather find a review article on that, or a textbook if it's a textbook matter, rather than citing a research paper chosen at random among the 100’s that use this formula. – F'x Oct 1 '12 at 7:31
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In general I do not like citing non-peer reviewed sources. Further, it sounds like you ware using it as a secondary source, which I like citing even less.

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