Difference between revisions of "Help:Authors of contributions"

Revision as of 19:36, 4 December 2011

Introduction

Note : The following text is a 'martyr' text, the objective of which is to provoque your reactions!

The concept of author is crucial in the scientific community. It lies at the base of a researcher reknown and carrier. It is equally important for amateurs, the social recognition of their contribution bringing them a strong moral benefit.

Mentioning an author has another interest. Once he is known, every reader is able to value which level of confidence he can give him. Everybody knows which author is reliable or not, and in which domains.

Let us be clear: by "amateur", we mean any person who has developed expertise and knowledge without being paid for that. There is no intrinsic difference between amateurs and professional teachers or researchers, inasmuch amateurs adhere to the basic rules of scientific knowledge development. Through their motivation and passion, amateurs largely contribute to entire sections of knowledge, when such knowledge is (momentarily?) neglected by research, which follows its own contraints.

How to quote authors ?

Authors are acknowledged by Wikipedia, but the history of each page has to be consulted in order to identify them. On the other part, use of pseudos dosen't allow to know the identity of authors.

In Pl@ntUse, we can distinguish three cases.

Unsigned pages

General pages asembling already existing data, for which the value added by an author is weak, are not signed.

Pages signed and not modified or not modifiable

An author can put on line an original contribution, which he signs down the page, as follows:

<right>Name, Surname, September 2011</right>

This page is to be quoted as in this example:

Chauvet, Michel, 2011 - ongoing. Nabatean agriculture. in Pl@ntUse ( http://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/ ). Accessed xx.xx.xx.

The page name appears as a chapter title in a collective book. It is better to leave a space after the opening bracket and before the closing bracket, so that the link might work. The word "Main_Page" is useless as it is added automatically.

Any modification of this contribution is then submitted to acceptation by the author. He may state clearly that he wants no change at all. If the author becomes inactive and if other persons wish to modify his contribution, logics is then that a distinct page is created.

Pages signed and modified, or pages with several authors

• An author can initiate a text that he wishes to see completed or amended by others. The multiplicity of authors must then be regulated. Here is a proposal:

1. every person contributing to more than 20% of a text is mentioned as author, in the order of importance of his contribution;
2. every person contributing to less than 20% is mentioned as contributor if so wished, as far as his contribution deals with new text elements;
3. every person contributing by improving orthography, style or page setting, is not quoted as author or contributor, but as editor if he has done significant corrections.
4. every person contributing to the translation of a text is quoted as translator, with the same rules as authors.
5. every person contributing to digitization and editing of a resource put on line is indicated by a mention such as : "put on line and revised by X". In the case of a set of linked pages (e.g. book chapters), this indication is put only on the introductory page.

In those cases, the correct quotation is:

Surname1, Name1, & Surname2, Name2, 2011 - ongoing. Page_title. in Pl@ntUse ( http://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/ ). Accessed xx.xx.xx.

and in case of more than three authors:

Surname, Name, et al., 2011 - ongoing. Page_title. in Pl@ntUse ( http://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/ ). Accessed xx.xx.xx.