How will you cite a discussion on this site in your paper?

Question

Should we just provide the link or write down the names of users whose responses were most useful?

Answer 1

This has come up on MO, and they actually have a nifty cite link for questions and answers. A question gets cited like this:

@MISC {MO39428,
TITLE = {x-th moment method},
AUTHOR = {fkenter (mathoverflow.net/users/8894)},
HOWPUBLISHED = {MathOverflow},
NOTE = {URL: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39428 (version: 2010-09-21)},
EPRINT = {https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39428},

URL = {https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39428},

}

and an answer gets cited like this:

@MISC {MO39450,
TITLE = {x-th moment method},
AUTHOR = {Mark Meckes (mathoverflow.net/users/1044)},
HOWPUBLISHED = {MathOverflow},
NOTE = {URL: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39450 (version: 2010-09-21)},
EPRINT = {https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39450},

URL = {https://mathoverflow.net/questions/39450},

}

I think that's a reasonable way to do it, so the site gets mentioned. This can be done even if the mention is an acknowledgement: we can say "The authors thank so and So\cite{} for their comments leading to the proof of Lemma 2.1".

In other words, whether you choose to cite or acknowledge, the citation mechanism can be used, and I think that's appropriate. The difference between this and a coffee room discussion is that there's no permanent record of the latter to cite, and modulo linkrot, there's one here.

If you want to acknowledge multiple users, you can use their cstheory user page, or their actual page if it's linked there.

What we also need is a way to keep track of such references if they appear. It's too soon now, but maybe if anyone sees one they can create a new CW question and start listing examples.

Answer 2

The original question asks about citing a discussion, not an individual question or answer. I'd be tempted to use a style similar the one I use to cite Wikipedia articles:

@MISC{cstheory-meta-meta,
, author = "{CSTheory Stack Exchange contributors}",
, title = "How will you cite a discussion on this site in your paper?"
, howpublished = "\emph{Theoretical Computer Science Meta -- Stack Exchange}"
, url = "http://meta.cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/352",
, note = "Updated September 25, 2010"
}

...although in some contexts it might be more appropriate to name the author of the question that sparked the discussion:

author = "Suresh Venkatasumbramanian and others"

Answer 3

If it was someone else's answer to your question, I think it might be a better idea to add an acknowledgement, not a citation.

You don't add a citation if a coffee-room discussion with your colleague led to a proof idea; it is much more typical to thank your colleague in the acknowledgements (unless you decide to co-author the paper). Discussions on this site should be somewhat similar to that.

In the acknowledgement, you can mention our (temporary) domain name cstheory.stackexchange.com and the full names of the users with useful answers (answers that contributed something concrete towards preparing your manuscript).

Answer 4

Edit: I would like to clarify that this answer only applies to the case where you really cite a post on this website. As Jukka and Joe say, if you want to mention a general helpful discussion on the website, acknowledgment seems more appropriate.

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I do not think that anything is different from citing other webpages. I would do the following:

• I prefer to cite books, journals and proceedings to citing preprints or webpages, considering the long-term availability.
• I would try to make it clear what I am citing. Am I citing a question? Or an answer? Or a collection of answers?
• When I cite a question, I would cite the name of the author, the title, the URL and probably the date.
• When I cite a answer, I would cite the name of the author, the URL and probably the date. Also, I would probably write something like “An answer to ‘[the title of the question]’” in place of a title.

Answer 5

My 2 cents: acknowledge the person in the text and put the reference to the cstheory discussion in a footnote. My wife works in art history, and they proceed this way (however, they reference real life events and private communication more than q&a website ;) ).