Constant Content

OK, I've written my first "research" article for CC. The article is about horses (specifically, the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act). 1st question: I gathered my info from several different web sites, including the ASPCA and HSUS sites. I don't quote the sites directly, so is it OK to just list these sources at the end of the article in an APA format source list?

2nd question: If a buyer purchases Usage rights, and my source list is at the end of the article, is the buyer obligated to print the source list too? In other words, if a buyer doesn't want to be troubled with printing my source list, must he/she purchase full rights? I don't want my source list to railroad anyone into buying full rights.

If you have citation questions like I do, it may be worth your time to visit Celeste's blog, where she explains it all very well.

Hi Melissa, I see no one has answered you yet so I'll give it a try. I often submit researched articles, and have used a variety of approaches. If you don't quote any source directly, you can refer to the source indirectly in your text "Acccording to experts at the CDC..."; or you can list them at the end of the article as you suggested (just don't include any links, so do not put www.constant-content, rather put constant-content.com - directing rather than linking, if that makes sense); or you can mention in your short summary that sources are available upon request. I've done all three, and all seem to work fine.

As for a usage rights buyer having to include sources, that doesn't seem to be a big problem as almost everyone buys full rights.

Hope this helps.
Carolyn

I usually include the important sources under the Comments section in the Properties box - it's under the File menu. That way, the sources are not included in the body of the article, so the buyer doesn't have to include them on their website if they don't want to (if they bought the article for usage, that is). But the sources are included with the file, so if the buyer -or if I - ever needs the sources, they are easy to access.

Amy, thanks for the info. I never knew you could do that. Does it need to be mentioned in the short summary?

CR, you're not the only one who's told me that inline citations can sometimes be enough. But it seems so wrong not to include dates, page numbers, author info, etc. The guidelines for CC citations seem so loose.

I guess I'll just submit and hold my breath . . .

This is web writing, not academic writing. On the web people want information and they want it now! When was the last time you read an article online that had footnote citations? Adding inline citations builds credibility for the article, but full citations just distract the reader. It is really a style issue. Remember also what CC customers want - articles to put on their websites to attract or retain traffic. Not academic papers.

I am constantly reading articles with footnote citations, but most of them are articles for purely academic or research reasons. I say this because even though I rarely read anything on the subjects of the SPCA, PETA, etc. I've rarely seen articles of those types which aren't intended to appeal to emotions rather than thoughts.

As far as usage and unique rights, the buyer is supposed to post the entire article as written without any editing.

Thank you for those responses. I thought I read somewhere that we should use APA or MLA style in our citations, which brought back high school memories of nit-picky English teachers and made me paranoid. I think maybe I'll use Amy's suggestion of including my thorough citations in a hidden spot.
Missy

Hey, Missy

I don't mention in the short summary that I've included my sources in the Properties box. Just my opinion, but I don't think many customers are all that concerned if they get a full APA-style citation list with the article. I think customers would rather see inline citations - like jadedragon said, customers are looking to drive traffic to their website - they don't want to direct traffic to a source's website. I include my sources in the Properties box so if the customer ever emails me wanting to know where I got my information from, I have it on hand. It's there if I need it - and you'd be surprised how many times I've went back to an article, looking in the Properties box for a source that I need for an article I'm currently working on.

The horse article was accepted! Thanks to everyone for their input. This was my first "research" article, and I was so afraid of citing wrong. Now that I'm over this hurdle, I can go research some more! Yay!

Yay! Here's to many more accepted articles

Congrats, Missy - and here's to someone purchasing your well-researched article!