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Best way to deal with citations

I am working on a book that has very extensive citations--marked in the text by a footnote. Does anyone have advice about the best way to handle this in an ebook, predominantly aiming as Kindle. As much as I like the idea of a hot link to the citation, ebooks I have read that did this sent me to the reference list at the end of the book making it hard to get back to the section I was reading. Due to the lack of pagination having actual hotlinked footnotes seems to be challenging. So I am wondering if I should have just plain text superscripts, or provide the author and year--in either case leaving the reader to manually go to the reference list when/if they want to?

Responses (27)

  • Martinsx1 0
    I have come across some works that made use of the author and year of publication in the footnote and the job looked cool. I'm sure it's going to be good as well for your ebook should you use it well. A lot of suggestions are going to come up but everything is dependent on what you truly desire for your book.
    June 15, 2018, 2:02 pm
  • Kakashi2020 0
    Either way would work but I prefer plain text and let the reader access it manually. You don't have to think so much about it as long as everything is cited correctly.
    June 15, 2018, 3:54 pm
  • Barida 0
    Plain text is also better as long as I am concerned. That is the only way that the reader might now decide to check it up or not to do it. Having the e-book filled with hot link is not the best thing since it is going to look shady as well.
    June 18, 2018, 12:47 pm
  • bienn05 0
    I prefer the reader to access it manually. I mean, if they are interested with it, they should manually go to it. I think readers are also patient so they just don't care if it is manual.
    June 20, 2018, 11:59 pm
  • DenisP 0
    I think that another important factor is that you don’t want to be distracting the reader with easy access citations. You don’t want them to be reading your book, and then suddenly they’re distracted and reading the reference you listed. In can ruin the flow of your own work.

    I’d say put the citations down in plain text so the reader can look them up manually if they’re really that interested. Citations are basically there just to cover your butt if anyone questions your sources and not meant to be an integral part of the work itself.
    July 17, 2018, 10:26 am
  • jaybee19 0
    I also agree with you. Plain text is better becaause after all it's the reader's decisionif they'll access that link or not.
    July 1, 2018, 12:28 am
  • treecko142 0
    Yeah, plain text is the way to go if you're not writing a research paper, it just makes the flow smoother and easier for the reader.
    July 13, 2018, 2:52 am
  • amelia88 0
    I also think the best approach is letting the reader access it themselves if they want the full citation.

    To me it just makes the overall document flow better and makes it far easier to read.
    June 15, 2018, 7:47 pm
  • ballyhara 0
    Honestly, those citations on footnotes get on my nerves. I get somehow stressed about them, because I know those ones have an extended explanation of the subject, but I really don't have the patience to go to a citation, and then go back to the lecture. For some readers footnotes are a must, and I used to have a colleague on college that was obsessed with them, she requested footnotes and citations in everything she read, because for her that meant high quality writing. That is somehow creepy to me, but on writing/reading you can find any type of people.
    June 17, 2018, 2:42 pm
  • Martinsx1 0
    Exactly. If you master how to access and make use of citations and footnotes in your reading, it's definitely going to give you a more expanded version of content that you are researching on. I do agree that it seems to be stressful because of how tiny those letters used for footnotes are, but they are certainly worth using if you have the time to go through them.
    July 18, 2018, 4:18 am
  • Kakashi2020 0
    You know why i dont want to use a live link even though it's easier for both author and reader?
    It's because when you use a live link the reader might forget about the story and just go to the cited site and read everything. While in manual links, readers tend to hate manually inputting the address or even doing cut and paste. This ensures that readers stay and finish the book.
    June 17, 2018, 4:02 pm
  • treecko142 0
    Put numbered citations instead in superscripts like this[1] and place links on them so they direct you to the references section at the end of the book[2] then just put another link on top of the page for your reference section so they return back to the page you were reading[3]. Then your references section would look like:

    [Back to previous page] [Back to first page]

    REFERENCES
    [1] reference for this
    [2] reference for book
    [3] reference for reading
    June 17, 2018, 9:04 pm
  • Martinsx1 0
    I have seen some e-books written with such references and it's very good in my opinion because you get to have the number in display where you can easily find the reference in the work. It took me a while to learn how to reference a work in hard copy especially with the project I worked on demanding strict use of APA-STYLE of referencing.
    June 18, 2018, 4:54 am
  • treecko142 0
    Yeah, there are a number of reference styles and most people who graduate from college are only familiar with one, so it can be quite confusing for people because different jobs require certain reference styles.
    June 18, 2018, 5:12 am
  • jaymish3 0
    I agree with the comments about types of referencing. I think first you need to know which one you are using. I also think that the best way to reference will depend on who your audience is. Are you writing for a general audience? Are you writing for academics? Are you writing for professionals? Make the citation decision based on your audience, cite in a way that would make it easy for them to access and use your references.
    June 18, 2018, 6:47 am
  • Martinsx1 0
    You are absolutely correct with that assertion on knowing the kind of audience that you are writing for in order to know the best form of referencing that you should use for them to have a better understanding of what you are trying to do. When you use something that is very difficult for your audience to understand, you have failed in your writing.
    July 18, 2018, 4:20 am
  • Corzhens 0
    Citations and footnotes can interfere with the reading and sometimes it is irritating. With an ebook, my suggestion is to use plain text because a link is tempting and the reader will be diverted. When I am reading, I don't care much for the references because as long as there is the citation, it means the fact is verified to be true. But if the ebook or manuscript is for serious reading like textbooks then I guess the footnotes are important.
    June 18, 2018, 5:58 pm
  • ballyhara 0
    Usually I get annoyed by citations and footnotes, so more often than not, I just don't care about them and keep reading. But, eventually you can have doubts about what authors/writers are talking about, specially when you're reading biographies, based on real life stories, so you want to check/verify the source, and in that case footnotes can be the key. So, in my case, citations or footnotes are taken for very specific readings, but generally I just pass them by.
    June 28, 2018, 12:27 pm
  • Barida 0
    One thing about citations is that you need to really understand the type of people that are going to make use of the content that you are making before deciding. If it is going to be those that are highly educated, then doing it the way that you seems best is never an issue wtih me as long as it ends up working for you at the end.
    June 22, 2018, 2:50 pm
  • Kakashi2020 0
    It's better to make it hard for the reader to access the links so that they might not be distracted with it. Linking it to the last page is a good one.
    June 26, 2018, 1:39 pm
  • DenisP 0
    You make a good point about citations possibly being distracting. I didn't really think of it that way, but now that I do, I'm definitely one of those people that might end up getting distracted from the book itself only to go check out the references. It's good to include references and citations for the sake of fact verification, but they definitely shouldn't be distracting the reader from your content, as they might end up missing the points you're trying to convey.
    July 13, 2018, 4:42 am
  • DenisP 0
    I've never had to deal with such an issue myself, so I'm obviously not going to be able to give you a professional opinion. That being said, I can tell you what I've seen other books do that (in my opinion) worked.

    Plain text footnotes that leave it to the reader to look up manually, simple and effective. The fact is that there are going to be plenty of readers who simply don't care to look up citations, and the ones that actually do care for citations and references are going to care enough to look them up manually. I'd say stick to traditional footnotes and you should be fine.
    June 27, 2018, 4:45 am
  • jennyfermanuel 0
    Plain text citation will do, I guess. Anyway, me as a reader don't care that much on either the plain text citation or the hot links citations. And you as a writer, as long as you give credit to the owner of whatever article you use on your writings, that would do. Don't bother too much about it. And as you say yes it is kinda challenging when you are tempted to open the links and having difficulty going back. Then just do the plain text citation. That will help more also for your readers to stay focus on your writings.
    July 1, 2018, 10:48 am
  • Barida 0
    The plain citation is okay as long as the book is not one that is being used in the academic space. Even when there is need for us to see more about the places the ideas were taken, it is important we do proper citation since it will assist the readers to find it easily on the internet.
    July 18, 2018, 5:06 am
  • jennyfermanuel 0
    I don't know. But as a reader myself, I don't want to open a link because I am having a difficulty in going back to the page or section I am currently reading. That's also the main problem of many readers here.
    July 18, 2018, 2:53 pm
  • clairmatin 0
    I think the links would only distract the reader. It's better if you just provide plain texts, and they can manually access them if they're that interested. For me personally, I hate opening links and then having difficulties going back. Most of the time I just leave and stop reading if I face the slightest problem.
    July 1, 2018, 1:58 pm
  • MomoStarr16 0
    Just make it clear with no too match design. Sometimes making things so beautiful will lead from being over and ugly. So just make it clear for the reader to see.
    July 15, 2018, 10:45 am