<p>So let's say, I want to cite a fact from Paper A. And Paper A cites this fact from Paper B. Should I cite the fact as coming from Paper B, even though I haven't read Paper B? In this case, I would trust Paper A's citation to be truthful, which (to me) seems like a reasonable assumption, since authors of papers are generally more trustworthy than undergrads and I'm not a referee or anything (nor does my paper have any impact, so it's not that important). </p>
<p>Does this happen to you? And is this bad practice for undergrads or grad students?</p>
<p>Now, perhaps when it comes to undergrads, professors may care more that you've read the paper, while when it comes to grad students, professors may care more than you've properly sourced the paper.</p>
<p>it’s a fair question… I can tell you with 100% confidence/certainty that you cite “Paper A.” Just about any piece of information these days is just a regergitation of fifty random sources into a coherent statement/argument.</p>
<p>So yeah…only cite “Paper A” because while “Paper A” may have used information from “Paper B,” that info from “Paper B” should be clearly stated on “Paper A.” So in citing information from “Paper A,” you are therefore citing the info from “Paper B,” and wherever “Paper B” gots its info and so on, and so on, and so on</p>
<p>^ uh actually, I’ve been taught the exact opposite.</p>
<p>I suppose it matters on the type of paper you are writing. In my science classes, I have ALWAYS been told to cite Paper B, this is because in citing A you are essentially taking whatever that person says as truth about something they didn’t even come up with themselves. Also, the information was first demonstrated in Paper B, so why give Paper A the credit? </p>
<p>In my social science and liberal arts classes, this tends to be more lenient … but then again, so is the information.</p>
<p>So actually, I’d cite paper B and read paper B… yes, it’s a total pain in the butt.</p>
<p>I’ve been taught to cite paper A if that is the source you read and got your information wrong. If you cited paper B without reading it, you run the risk that paper A misstated paper B or paper B quotes paper C, and so on. If you read both A and B, it’s your choice which one to specifically cite, but B would be preferred, especially if source A was something like Wikipedia.</p>
<p>If you read paper A, cite paper A. Citing papers you haven’t actually read is never a good idea; you’re going to end up with citations that don’t really support the things you’re saying.</p>
<p>Use what you want from paper A, and simply cite as (qtd. in [Author of Paper A]). That indicates that you read Paper A, and used a quote that Paper A had quoted from somewhere else. Beyond that (i.e. Paper B cited from Paper C, which got it from Article D, which was published by Author E, who first published it as Article F in the NIMH, etc.) is really of no concern to you. Done deal.</p>
<p>Proper verification if you find a quote in Paper A that cites to Paper B is to get Paper B, verify it says what A claims, and cite it. Never assume A is truly accurate (one is amazed at how many times it is not). If you cannot verify then best is not to use it, but if you just must use it then you cite to Paper A and note that is quoting from B.</p>
<p>I read a paper a few months ago and didn’t believe some of the facts cited in the paper as they were so out-of-line with my experience and understanding of the topic. I looked into one particular fact by digging out the citation and found that the current paper exaggerated quite a bit from going to “most” to “all”. I then looked at the citation for the citation and found that it was from a magazine with no citations or documentation for the facts that it stated. It was poor research all around.</p>
<p>For undergraduate work, citing A is probably good enough. In general, professors are not going to track down second-level references when grading papers. If you care about the paper that you are producing, then you might consider looking at the citations to see if their reasoning and citations are reasonable.</p>
<p>BTW, the above citation error was done by a Georgetown Law Professor and she is very well published. I was a bit shocked to find such poor scholarship but it happens.</p>