[Tex/LaTex] Citing with exact chapter/pages/etc directly in text [scientific publication]

bibliographiesciting

I am writing a scientific publication and am wondering if it is correct to cite an exact chapter, page from a book/publication directly in the text, like so:

Brown describes this in \cite[Chapter 6.6]{brown2430}

From my point of view it is perfectly usable to point a reader to the exact place where he/she might find the details about the subject, instead of citing the whole article/book, but this logic has been questioned (by "scientific" people 😉 ).

I cannot find any guidelines in the internet. Can you point me in the right direction? (as I write the question I realized it is not as much TEX-related, as content related, but hopefully this is a crowd that should know that)

Best Answer

Talking in general, a more precise reference to a book or a paper is certainly preferable. In some fields (among which chemistry and mathematics) the convention

\cite[Chapter~3]{somebook}
\cite[Theorem~1.3]{somepaper}
\cite[p.~42]{somebook}

is usually followed when such a reference would help the reader in finding the cited text. Some texts such as Swanson's Mathematics into Type address this.

It seems a general opinion that something like

… as observed in Laurel and Hardy (1932).

where the citation refers to a 900 page book is quite vague and unhelpful.

In humanities, the place in the book or paper would frequently be given in a footnote; other fields don't use footnotes.

A good strategy for deciding what to do is to look at some other theses in one's field. Some schools have their traditions and, even if they are silly, they should be followed.

In case citations of that kind are not accepted, one can always try to integrate the information in the text.

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