3

Of course, I would retain the for me important points, but omit the details.

To the question in the title, I would like to add: If it is, how would it be best to point to that paper? Should I reference this as a "regular" citation or is it better to include some explanation, like "From [5] it is clear that ..."?

Improve this question
6
  • Could expand more on the kind of explanation you want to include? I would not call "From [5] it is clear that ..." an explanation.
    – Taladris
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 15:09
  • 1
    Also, "[5]" is not a noun.
    – JeffE
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 20:43
  • 1
    @JeffE: You'll think I'm being sarcastic, but...I think it is of some philosophical interest whether your previous comment is in fact true.
    – Pete L. Clark
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 1:20
  • 1
    @PeteL.Clark: I agree, although I'd say rather that it's of linguistic interest. Maybe "[5]" is a pronoun? Whether or not the quoted is phrase is grammatical, though, there's the separate question of whether it's good academic writing.
    – Mark Meckes
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 8:12
  • 1
    Whether it's good, grammatical, or otherwise, it is very common.
    – Bill Barth
    Commented Jun 1, 2014 at 13:44

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

I know people who restate whole proofs of mathematical theorems, either because the proof itself is interesting, or simply because the original presentation of the proof is poor in their opinion.

It is completely fine to summarize works of other people in your work, you just have to make it completely clear that it is not your work. But you can quote even whole paragraphs IMHO, without much problem (surely in math/natural science, I'm not sure how's it in philosophy and such).

Improve this answer
1

I think there is no problem to sum up informations if they have been investigated already. You should reference this as a normal citation.

"From [5] it is clear that ..."

It's better to write the title or the author's name (or research group) instead of reference number. If you take informations from a book or the like, you can use something like 'It is well known that... '

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .