They examined the citation index, tracing the way citations with misspellings and punctuations errors traveled through scholarly publications. Their argument was that it was common practice for an author(s) not to really read the work they're citing, but simply listing them as footnotes and endnotes by simply copying the footnotes/endnotes used by another scholar. By tracking citations with mistakes in them, they could infer that a certain portion of those were likely due to outright cheating since said cheater didn't actually have the research at hand to cite correctly.
Does anyone remember this research? I'm pretty sure it was posted here or at PEN-L or perhaps even both.
"Scream-of-consciousness prose, peppered with sociological observations, political ruminations, and in-yore-face colloquial assaults."
-- Dennis Perrin, redstateson.blogspot.com
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