It was back then in my PhD days. I was in the middle of writing my thesis, when I stumbled upon something really interesting. In a publication, a researcher had cited a study where a mysterious subpopulation was found among a certain cell population. I was puzzled 😳. So far, I had never heard of this subpopulation, although, at this point, I had an almost exhaustive collection of publications about that particular cell population.
Intrigued, I dived into finding the original paper 🔎.
Not that easy 🤨. Because, annoyingly, that researcher did not cite the original publication, but another publication that only cited another publication 🙄. This went on and on. With every search I ended up with yet another citation. Finally, after days of searching, I finally found the original paper, and I instantly knew that my search had been a waste of time. There was no mention of the subpopulation there 🔚.
Unfortunately, this did not just happen with that particularly mysterious subpopulation. It happens far too often with citations in scientific literature.
If you describe a finding, look for the original paper and cite the original researcher 👍. Try not copy/paste what other people cited.
✨🙏 Honour to whom honour is due! 🙏✨
By not citing the original paper, valuable information might get lost for ever 🕳️!
PS
What a pity. That subpopulation could have changed the world. But now I do not even know if it ever existed 🤷♀️.
#science #research #stem #mint #goodpractice #citation #scientificpublication #phd #cells
Author: asban
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