1272647376|%B %d %Y|agohover by 
EricT
 
  
 |
|
Reference padding is the practice of "padding" the source list of an article with many more citations than should be necessary given the information or ideas presented. An extreme example may be an article which is around 5000 words long (pretty short to me) but which lists around 100 references. Although it is possible it is unlikely that such a high number of sources were used to research such an article and it is especially blatant when the article is not a "research" article at all. |
Most fitness articles present one central idea and attempt to back up that idea. A research article, on the other hand, may be presenting a great deal of data on a given subject.
The majority of references in fitness articles with long reference lists tend to be unrelated or only loosely related to the article. Many times the author is actually unable to back up his or her conclusions because there simply is NOT any real data on the subject. But instead of abandoning the idea the author simply pads the reference list with anything and everything that could possibly correlate.
So, if I wanted to make a statement about protein ingestion but was unable to find real resarch relating to my idea I might list 50 or 75 pubmed references that have something to do with protein! The more references you list the less likely the average reader will be to check them. Don't be the average reader.
Deliberate reference padding is the true bad practice here and it will tend to involve many references that do not truly back up the article.
Some reference padding may be more innocent since inexperienced writers often think they must use many sources for the same information or information subcategory.
Perhaps I am looking for information pertaining to the force velocity relationship of human skeletal muscle. One or two good sources should give me the information I need for a basic article on the subject since I just want to give a nice explanation. But even though two sources provides enough for me to explain the force velocity relationship I feel that the article would not be credible if I only use two sources. So I seek out many other sources which basically provide the same information and list them as well. This is misleading to the readers and yes, it is dishonest since I am attempting to make the reader think that I used a great quantity of sources when in fact I only used two and then "confirmed" them with other sources. But it's a lack of confidence that caused me to do it rather than a desire to mislead the reader. My explanation can still be sound as far as the state of knowledge on the subject goes.
If you've ever read a fitness or strength training article with a vast source list at the end which left you scatching your head thinking "wow, they read all that stuff?" you've probably encountered this. When an article requires many many sources to write the article itself will tend to make that need obvious. If you find the quanity of references surprising then you are probably picking up on the incongruity between content and source list.
I personally consider reference padding a pretty big sin. If you come across this then check those references! Chances are most of them are fake and have very little to nothing to do with the article.
There are many related practices having to do with references but this is a primary "tool" in the realm of formal article writing. We shouldn't expect someone to cite accurate references every time they post something on the internet but it they DO cite references then those references should be accurate.
The No Reference Reference
One other bad practice that tends to happen more on the magazne and "news" sites is referencing a "study" on a fitness or health related topic without giving enough particulars on the study that the reader can check it.
"A study performed by Mr. Uneverherdofim at Wassa Matta U found that humans are more likely to believe me if I talk about "studies".
If a research paper is recent then you can bet that a link can be provided to at least the abstract but failing that a full journal reference should be given. If it doesn't appear in a peer reviewed journal…sorry, it's not a real "study".
Comments
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Above Article Ads</title> </head> <body> <!-- 2 This is the HTML section of the badge --> <script src="http://tag.contextweb.com/TagPublish/getjs.aspx?action=VIEWAD&cwrun=200&cwadformat=728X90&cwpid=514880&cwwidth=728&cwheight=90&cwpnet=1&cwtagid=54612"></script> <!-- Badge ends --> </body> </html>
