I am writing a book about an engineering subject but mostly introduction level, nothing very technical. There is a bibliography section at the end. In some places, to say who found a formula or a procedure etc..., I mention his name in the text. Just because of this one time mention, do I need to go search and find which publication it was in, and include them also in the bibliography? Or mentioning them in the text is enough? These are all well established, commonly known things by the way, since at least decades on average or more.
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You need a citation for the book. I’d you can go out to eat with him, you can probably just email him and ask for the best citation for the thing he mentioned offhand at dinner the other night.– Bill BarthMay 18 at 18:24
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3@BillBarth, alas, Euclid has died.– BuffyMay 18 at 18:41
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@Buffy, this likely appears in one of -Euclid's Elements- and should be cited as such. user3600630 won't have the year, but citing a modern publication/translation of EE## ought to be fairly straightforward. If they'd said Euclid rather than "I mention his name," I wouldn't be so adamant, and would have written a full answer. But Euclid is pretty well studied and available, so I don't understand the hesitation to cite: which book, publisher, year, pages, ought to be a fine citation, and yes Euclid needs no credit, but a reader might want to look at nearby material, who translated, etc.– Bill BarthMay 20 at 19:15
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@BillBarth, he probably won't respond to a lunch invitation, though. I own a copy of Euclid, actually, though not a first edition. He was a few years ahead of me.– BuffyMay 20 at 19:20
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@Buffy and probably had a scribe write his works onto now ancient linen or bone or stone which has been destroyed by time.– Bill BarthMay 20 at 19:31
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1 Answer
In some places, to say who found a formula or a procedure etc..., I mention his name in the text. Just because of this one time mention, do I need to go search and find which publication it was in, and include them also in the bibliography?
Yes, if you say "Mary Smith first enumerated the relationship between X and Y" you should cite the paper in which they did that. It would be very annoying as a reader to see that and go "I should read that paper," and then not have anywhere to find what paper it actually was!
answered May 18 at 20:03
