Cramping Your Style: The Role of Citation Styles in Academic Writing,Today & Tomorrow

Though we have become adept at thriving in a constantly evolving environment, navigating the production and use of information and knowledge is increasingly more complicated as information systems, social media platforms, and research practices evolve. The Information has Value frame from ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education deals squarely with this topic and addresses issues of plagiarism, intellectual property, and citation. And new editions of style guides (APA 7th in 2019 and MLA 9th in 2021) detail citation guidelines for increasingly more formats of information. In this panel discussion we will explore questions that arise from our current environment, one in which apps allow users to easily remix and redistribute content without attribution, there is a proliferation of information formats (no longer just the standard journal articles, monographs, and reference works), the visual cues and contexts surrounding online information and its sources are blurred, and the concept of intellectual property is becoming more ambiguous. As we regularly see, students are often unable to distinguish between a webpage and an online journal article. Does the differentiation still matter? If so, is it obvious to students why this differentiation is significant? It is more important than ever to explore the dynamics of how students and researchers use information, and whether or not citation systems are responding in a way that supports critical evaluation, intellectual property value, and correct attribution. In this panel discussion, a variety of stakeholders (a librarian, a representative from a professional association that publishes a major writing style guide, a faculty member, etc.) will address these critical questions:
In what ways are social media and technology impacting attitudes toward intellectual property and citation?
How do standardized citation practices help or fail students, faculty, librarians and others in our current information environment (e.g. a time of “container collapse”, the imperative to incorporate a broader array of voices and knowledge systems into research)?
What will the value of discipline-specific citation styles be in the future?
What is the future of citation, or, more importantly, what should be the future of citation?