Exploring the Value of Footnotes in Research: A Comprehensive Overview
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Presentation Transcript
Foot Notes – why bother? Ian Gent March 1, 2001
Map of Talk • What are Foot Notes? • Some History and Statistics • Why bother?
What are Footnotes? • easiest introduction is to show you the archive • but Footnotes are not • reviewed • distributed • cited • good • correct • …
History & Statistics • Idea stolen from ‘Blue Book Notes’ • from MRG in Edinburgh, Alan Bundy • Foot Notes started in Jan, 1995 • physical folders in Strathclyde, Leeds • Electronic archive replaced folders • Perl scripts by Dave Clark, Ian Gent • As of Feb 27, there are 597 Foot Notes • just under 2 a week over 6 years
Some reasons to bother • Don’t lose unfinished work • steps towards papers • Don’t lose finished work • journal papers have come out of old notes • Document work in progress • e.g. recent notes by Evgeny • Circulate half baked ideas for discussion • trust in fellow APES vital
Three real reasons to bother • The APES Audit • review at APES meetings by Ian & Toby • discusses every footnote since the last meeting • except notes forming part of submitted papers • discussion mainly about unpublished ideas • It makes you think about half formed ideas • It helps keeps APES together
Any drawbacks? • You can be satisfied with limited circulation • “I’ve written a note about it” • Can be a “Write Only Medium” ? • e.g. were there too many notes in June 99? • 500+ history intimidating to new APES? • not many notes have introductory sections • Dangerous for PhD students? • lots of good notes don’t always make a PhD
Should Christian and Muffy bother? • I think so! • Steal our Perl scripts! • Don’t take my word for it … • Patrick put his views in ‘The APES 500’ • as a footnote of course!