Citations for Thesis - Help?

Electric

What do people think about citing blogs in an LLM thesis? Before you all say absolutely not let me put it in context. There are couple of blogs I'm looking at, two of them are by noted academics whose reputations are really beyond reproach (Prof W. Schabas and Dr A. de Waal) one is a blog by a reputable journal and another is by a research project at Oxford University.

Would it be ok to cite articles from these blogs in my thesis. The arguments that they make a really central to what I'm writing about and given the reputation of the authors could the blogs not be considered as articles albeit just not peer reviewed ones.

I'm due to submit next Friday, I have other citations that I could use (not as good but would suffice) but I would hate to have to exclude these. Still I don't want to take any chances!

What do you guys think?

Here are the links in case anyone wants to check them out.
http://blogs.ssrc.org/darfur/
http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.com/
http://iccobservers.wordpress.com/
http://www.ejiltalk.org/

convert

Have you asked your supervisor about it? They'd be the best person to advise you

Tom Dunne

I've only lectured at undergrad level, but I would always do my best to dissuade students from referencing websites and material on the internet.

And I lecture in computing/IT.

My personal opinion is that it is simply too unreliable, you can't be 100% sure the source you are referencing is legit.

Electric

I said it to my supervisor and he thought it would be ok. But he's away on holidays at the moment so I can't double check it with him.

I'm going to call the college tomorrow and get some more information from them.

Afraid I can't avoid referencing stuff from the internet a fair amount of my citations are from online legal journals and newspapers. Most of the books in my area aren't comtemporary so I need to reference online materials as they are the most relevant.

pow wow

I'd be inclined to avoid if possible, as you never really know who is writing them. We're advised to treat them as ancillary sources in strict moderation (school of politics )

If you are citing perhaps you could use them as opinion pieces moreso than academic support to your argument?

Electric

Sorry yeah I should say I'm using them in the context that so and so agrees with this proposition etc or a similar point was made by x

Also I definitely know that Prof Schabas' blog is legit because I've spoken to him in person about it. Does that make a difference?

Ostrom

I would avoid. A passing footnote maybe, if your citation format allows, or else comment on it as one means through which information was made available, rather than citing claims within it. If I came across it in a students thesis/essay I would be wary (not that yours is suspect, but I would imagine they tend to be met with suspicion generally)

Electric

I've emailed the director of my course so hopefully they will be able to shed more light. Incidentally my supervisor didn't think it would be a problem

I really hope they'll ok it, they really help me make my argument!

Electric

Ahhh I just got an out of office email from the course director saying that she is out of the office until the day after the due date!!!!

Esmereldina

Electric wrote: »

I said it to my supervisor and he thought it would be ok. But he's away on holidays at the moment so I can't double check it with him.

I'm going to call the college tomorrow and get some more information from them.

Afraid I can't avoid referencing stuff from the internet a fair amount of my citations are from online legal journals and newspapers. Most of the books in my area aren't comtemporary so I need to reference online materials as they are the most relevant.

From what you say here I think it will be fine, as long as these sources are just some of many and not the material your whole argument hinges on. They sounds like good, reputable sources from what you say. No need to have a kneejerk reaction against them just because they are online. I would say definitely cite them - all you need to decide is how much prominence to give them in your thesis.

Electric

Hey,

Thanks for the replies. I spoke to the Student Advisor today and he said it was fine, just make sure that they are properly cited and try not to use them too much.

Phew! What a relief was thinking I'd have to go back to the drawing board and find some new references.

carlow_kid

If you are using ideas from the blog you must cite them - otherwise it is like not referencing a book or article. Frequently these academic blogs are making reference to papers, published or work-in-progress. In such cases it is best to directly reference the paper.

Electric

Where I have taken something from the blog, be it a quote or an idea, I have cited it. I'm well aware of the consequences of not doing so. My concern was that blogs wouldn't be acceptable sources.

The posts in the blogs don't make reference to other papers that have been written, they just seem to be musings on a particular topic.

Anyway I've spoken to the Student Advisor and my supervisor and both of them have given me the thumbs up so I'm happy to accept that.