[seqfan] Re: Format for references in OEIS.

[Charles Greathouse]

I think it would be great to be consistent, but I don't see any practical
way of doing it in the near-term.

Charles Greathouse
Analyst/Programmer
Case Western Reserve University


On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Alonso Del Arte <alonso.delarte at gmail.com>wrote:

> And I have to admit that I myself have been inconsistent with references
> I've added myself. Sometimes I'll copy a citation from another entry and
> change only the page numbers even though I would format it differently if I
> was doing it from scratch.
>
> Al
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 8:03 PM, Neil Sloane <njasloane at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am strongly opposed to requiring a rigid format for references.
> > I add a lot of references myself, which is very time-consuming,
> > and if I had to put them into
> > a standard format it would take
> > twice as long and I just wouldn't do it.
> > Plus there really cannot be a standard format which
> > will apply to journal articles, conf proceedings,
> > theses, preprints, newspaper articles, articles
> > on home pages, blog posts,
> > etc
> >
> > Plus we have about 240,000 refs and links right now (I just
> > counted them) and it would be impossible to
> > make them uniform.
> >
> > References are like people - or dogs - they come in many
> > different formats and we just have to be tolerant!
> >
> > Neil
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 7:45 PM, Alonso Del Arte <
> alonso.delarte at gmail.com
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > Yes, there is disagreement. Part of the issue here is the dividing
> lines
> > > between things we want to keep for the sake of tradition, things we
> want
> > to
> > > keep for the sake of convenience, and things we want to keep due to an
> > > irrational attachment to the way things were.
> > >
> > > Consider this mildly contrived example:
> > >
> > > C. M. Bender & G. V. Dunne, Polynomials and operator orderings, J.
> Math.
> > > Phys. 29 ('88), 1727-1.
> > >
> > > "C." abbreviates "Carl". Maybe we're not worried about Carl M. Bender
> > being
> > > confused for Clark M. Bender. In my opinion, it is not a good practice
> to
> > > continue to abbreviate first names (or in some cases middle names as
> > > applicable).
> > >
> > > I feel differently about abbreviating journal titles, even though
> > sometimes
> > > the memory and bandwidth savings are just as negligible (e.g., "Phys."
> > for
> > > "Physics"). I don't worry at all that "Math. Rep." could be
> > > "Mathematicians' Repetitions". The MR abbreviations may be entirely
> > > practical.
> > >
> > > Trying to abbreviate page numbers could sometimes lead to the mistake
> > > illustrated above: the paper starts on page 1727 and ends on page 1731,
> > not
> > > page 1721.
> > >
> > > Even if we were to decide a consistent format needs to be adhered to,
> the
> > > most practical way to go about it is to enforce it for new entries and
> > > gradually bring older entries into line.
> > >
> > > Al
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 5:13 PM, L. Edson Jeffery <lejeffery2 at gmail.com
> > > >wrote:
> > >
> > > > There seems to be disagreement regarding the format for references.
> For
> > > > journal references, in particular, should the preferred format for
> the
> > > > journal title be as adopted by Mathematical Reviews?
> > > >
> > > > This practice is widely accepted in professional and technical
> > > > publications. An example is having a preference for J. Integer Seq.,
> > > > instead of Journal of Integer Sequences.
> > > >
> > > > A comprehensive list (as of Oct 2011) of journal title abbreviations
> > > > adopted by Mathematical Reviews can be found at the following link:
> > > >
> > > > http://www.ams.org/msnhtml/serials.pdf
> > > >
> > > > Ed Jeffery
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > >
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> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Alonso del Arte
> > > Author at SmashWords.com<
> > > https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AlonsoDelarte>
> > > Musician at ReverbNation.com <
> http://www.reverbnation.com/alonsodelarte>
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > >
> > > Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dear Friends, I have now retired from AT&T. New coordinates:
> >
> > Neil J. A. Sloane, President, OEIS Foundation
> > 11 South Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904, USA.
> > Also Visiting Scientist, Math. Dept., Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.
> > Phone: 732 828 6098; home page: http://NeilSloane.com
> > Email: njasloane at gmail.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Alonso del Arte
> Author at SmashWords.com<
> https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AlonsoDelarte>
> Musician at ReverbNation.com <http://www.reverbnation.com/alonsodelarte>
>
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>
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