Program / Course 23: Research Methodology / Lesson 4.4
What you will learn
- Keep a working bibliography that grows with the project and is easy to convert into a final one.
- Use a reference manager, or a plain document, without trusting it blindly.
- Run a systematic check that every note matches a source and every source is cited.
- Spot the common citation errors and fix them before submission.
The big idea
A bibliography is easiest to produce when it is built as the project goes, and it is reliable only when it has been checked. Tools can store the data and format the entries, but they copy errors and cannot tell whether a note matches what the source says. A final check should confirm four things: every note has a source, every source in the bibliography is cited, the formatting is consistent, and the quotations and page numbers agree with the books.
Key terms
- Working bibliography
- The running list of sources you have found or used, kept during research and later reduced to the final bibliography.
- Reference manager
- A program, some of them free, that stores bibliographic details and can insert formatted notes and a bibliography into a document.
- Metadata
- The descriptive data about a source, such as author, title, date and publisher, which a reference manager stores and uses.
- Consulted work
- A source read for background but not cited. Some papers list these separately, and others leave them out.
- Cross-check
- A comparison of two lists, such as notes against bibliography, to find mismatches.
- Proofreading
- A final careful reading to find errors of detail, such as misspellings, wrong numbers and inconsistent formatting.
- Digital object identifier (DOI)
- A permanent code that points to a particular article or other digital work, giving a stable way to find it.
Background
A project that lasts months can gather dozens of sources. If you wait until the end to assemble the bibliography, you may find that you have lost the editor of a volume, or the page range of an article, or the edition of a book you have already returned to the library. The solution, described in Lesson 1.4, is to record details when you first use a source. A working bibliography is that record. At the end, you select the sources actually cited and put them in final form.
Reference managers help with this. Free programs such as Zotero can import details from library catalogs and websites, store notes and PDF files, and produce footnotes and bibliographies in Chicago and other styles. They save time and reduce typing errors. But they also copy whatever data they are given. Catalog records may be incomplete, capitalization may be wrong, an edition may be missing, and automatic formatting may not match the current rules. Treat the program as a clerk who needs supervision. If you prefer, a well-kept document or spreadsheet does the same work by hand.
Checking is the final discipline. A paper with careful argument can be undermined by a quotation that does not match the book, a note pointing to the wrong page, or a source listed but never used. Checking is tedious, and that is why it is often skipped. Readers who check notes, such as examiners and editors, find these faults quickly. Doing the check yourself, with patience, is a form of honesty and of courtesy to the reader.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Build the working bibliography as you go
Add each source to a single list or to your reference manager as soon as you decide to use it. Include everything needed: author, title, editor and translator, edition, place, publisher, year, volume, issue, pages, DOI or web address and access date.
Mark each entry as primary or secondary, and add a one or two sentence note of what it is and how far you trust it. These notes will help with the literature review.
Step 2: Use a tool, and supervise it
If you use a reference manager, check each imported entry against the title page or the article’s first page. Correct names, capitalization, dates and missing fields. Make sure the entry type is right: a chapter in an edited book is not the same as a book.
Keep a backup of your library of sources, and export it to a plain file now and then. Programs change, and you do not want your only record to depend on one.
Step 3: Cross-check notes against the bibliography
Make two lists. First, every source named in your notes. Second, every entry in your bibliography. Compare them. Any source in the notes but missing from the bibliography must be added. Any entry in the bibliography that is not cited should be cut, unless your reader wants consulted works listed.
Check that the shortened notes match the full notes, that the same work is not listed twice under two spellings, and that the order is alphabetical.
Step 4: Check quotations and facts against the sources
Go through every quotation and compare it, letter by letter, with the book or article. Check that the page number is right and that the quotation is not taken out of context. Check dates, names and numbers in the text against reliable sources.
If a quotation came from another author’s quotation and you have not seen the original, either find the original or say ‘quoted in’ with the source you actually read. Do not present it as if you had read it.
Step 5: Proofread the format
Read the notes and bibliography once only for format. Check italics, quotation marks, punctuation, abbreviations, capitalization and spacing. Check that all entries follow the same system, and that the system matches the current manual or your teacher’s guide.
Then rest and reread. Errors that were invisible on one day can be obvious on the next. The assignment of this course asks you to wait three days before the final check.
- Does every note have a matching entry in the bibliography?
- Is every bibliography entry actually cited in the paper?
- Did I check each imported citation against the book or article itself?
- Is every quotation exact, with the right page?
- Did I see every source I cite, or am I repeating someone else’s reference?
- Is the format the same throughout?
Examples
A mismatch found
A student’s note 14 cites ‘Brown, Early Baptism, 88’, but the bibliography lists no work by Brown. She realizes she forgot to add it, finds the details from her working list, and also finds that the book’s date differs from the one in her note. (A constructed example.)
An import error
A reference manager imports a catalog record that lists a translated work under the translator’s name as author and omits the original author. The student sees that the title page says otherwise and corrects the entry. (A constructed example of a common kind of error.)
A quotation from a quotation
A student finds a famous sentence of a Father in a modern book and wants to use it. She looks up the Father’s work, finds that the sentence is a loose paraphrase in the modern book, and quotes the actual text instead, citing it correctly.
A consulted work
A student read a general survey for background but did not draw on it for any specific claim. She leaves it out of the bibliography, or lists it separately as ‘works consulted’ if her reader allows.
Different perspectives
Academic practice
Editors and examiners often check a sample of notes against sources. Scholars typically keep their own databases or reference libraries, and many use reference managers. Style guides advise that the writer, not the software, is responsible for the accuracy of the final citations.
Catholic and Orthodox scholarship
Scholars in these traditions regularly work with multiple editions and languages of the Fathers and the liturgy, which makes careful records of edition and translation especially important. Collections such as the Greek and Latin patrologies have their own citation conventions that a bibliography should record.
Protestant scholarship
Protestant scholars working on the Reformers face a similar need to identify editions of collected works and translations, as the same writing may appear in several collections with different numbering. Accurate bibliographic records allow other scholars to find the same text.
Librarians
Librarians recommend verifying imported records against the item, using persistent identifiers such as DOIs where they exist, saving copies of online sources, and keeping personal backups. They also help students find the correct details for a book, an edition or a series.
Why it matters
Errors of citation are not trivial. A wrong page frustrates a reader, a quotation that does not match the source shakes trust in the whole paper, and a missing source can look like concealment. Careful checking prevents these, and it is also a moral habit of attention that the commandment against false witness asks of every writer (Exodus 20:16).
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The software formats it, so it must be right.
Correction: The software can only format the data it has. Imported data can be wrong, and style rules are updated. Check the results.
Misunderstanding: Checking citations is for the end only.
Correction: The easiest time to check is as you write. At the end, a systematic check is still needed, but fewer errors will remain.
Misunderstanding: It is acceptable to cite a source I have only seen quoted, as if I had read it.
Correction: Say ‘quoted in’ and give the source you actually read, or find the original. Presenting a secondhand quotation as firsthand misleads the reader.
Misunderstanding: A long bibliography shows careful work.
Correction: A bibliography should list what you used. Padding it with works you did not use is dishonest and unhelpful.
Knowledge check
What is a working bibliography, and how does it differ from the final one?
A working bibliography is the running list of sources you gather and use during research, with full details and notes. The final bibliography is the selected, formatted list of the sources actually cited in the paper. Building the first as you go makes the second quick to produce and more accurate.
Why should you not trust a reference manager blindly?
A reference manager stores and formats the data it is given. Imported records can contain errors, such as wrong names or missing editions, and automatic formatting may not follow the current rules. The writer must check each entry against the source and the manual, since the writer is responsible for the final accuracy.
What is a cross-check of notes and bibliography?
It is a comparison of every source named in the notes with every entry in the bibliography. Sources in notes but missing from the bibliography must be added, and uncited entries should be removed unless consulted works are to be listed. It also confirms that shortened notes match their full notes and that names are spelled the same.
What should you do with a quotation you found in another author’s book?
Try to find the original and check it. If you cannot, cite it as quoted in the book you actually read, giving both the original author and the book. Do not present it as though you had read the original, since the quoting author may have mistaken or changed it.
Think it through
- What kind of citation error would be hardest for you to notice in your own work?
- Why might a reader who finds one wrong page doubt the whole paper?
- How would you set up a system so that you never lose a source’s details?
- How does the commandment against false witness reach footnotes?
Independent assignment
An audit of citations
In your own notebook, take the notes and bibliography you wrote in earlier lessons, or a page of a draft with at least ten notes. Carry out the five steps of this lesson. Write a list of every error you found and how you fixed it, with a summary of about 200 words on what kind of mistake you are most likely to make and how you will watch for it. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration Use its bibliography to check how a scholarly work lists its sources.
- Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes) Study how its notes and bibliography fit together.
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Practice writing correct entries for different editions of the same texts.
- Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Practice cross-checking notes for a collection of documents.
- Exodus 20:16 The commandment against false witness.
- Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, a text for honest checking.
- Colossians 3:23 Work heartily.