Source
r/AskAcademia•
Flubb

Should foreign students use local citation requirements?

We have a number of agreements with foreign universities who send us students, and as they come from a number of different disciplines, they're used to their specific citation systems from their home countries/majors. We're discussing whether they should be able to continue using their 'most' familiar citation system, or whether they should be forced into using our system (that they may not be familiar with and would probably not use going back to their own countries), eg: many use MLA/APA/Harvard, but we use MHRA^1

We offer tutorials in Zotero which pretty much eliminates the need to learn anything for the students, but the counter is that they'd have to learn a system for one or two semesters and then never use it again.

Anyone in a similar situation and want to offer what their university does? I don't like letting them use their own systems because we would have to learn multiple citation systems to a degree that we can tell whether or not they're using it correctly, otherwise they'd be practising their own systems incorrectly, which is pedagogically dubious.

^1 Because it is a superior citation system natch.

Posted Oct 8, 2019, 10:54 AM UTC

67
postHocCertainty•

If I had a dollar for everything I learned and never used again, I'd have at least $300.

School is about learning things. Make them learn Zotero, it's not hard.

14
thegreenaquarium•

In a universe where you can download a citation manager into word that will format everything for you in whatever format you select, can this even really be called learning?

11
bigrottentunaProfessor & VP Research•

Have them use whatever system you use. They are there to learn, and in my field it is common for different publishers to have different standards.

9
BananasonThebrain•

I always have to format an article’s reference list for the journal I’m sending it to. I think the students should learn to adapt to what the host wants.

7
ChemMJW•

They should use whichever citation system is standard in your department. Their status as international students does not earn them special treatment. If they want to study in your department, they play by your department's rules. Part of studying abroad is learning the way things are done in the host country.

5
nonordinarystates•

Would it not be acceptable to require students to use the specific citation style that is more commonly implemented within their field of study? Or, most commonly implemented within the research group they are working in? Or, most commonly required by the scientific journals they will be seeking publication in?

I am in an international graduate program with students from 10+ different countries and 3+ continents, we are instructed to use whichever citation format that the PI we are working with uses.

3
FlubbOP•

Yeah, that's the route we were going, but I don't use Harvard, and if a student misuses Harvard in their classes, I'm not helping them learn Harvard because I'm not aware it isn't properly executed. Multiply that by 4-6 disciplines and while technically we could as a department learn them all (or more), it seems a bit excessive in terms of return.

1