62

I am writing a research paper. A small but important idea for the paper was found on MathOverflow. I know the real name of the user. I tried contacting him and offered him co-authorship, but I got no reply. How do I acknowledge him now ? Do journals encourage citations under pseudonyms?

user531706
  • 611
  • 1
  • 5
  • 5

3 Answers3

60

Let's say it was a big enough contribution to require a citation. You could cite the MathOverflow post, as Massimo Ortolano suggests, especially if the entire conversation was generative, and it would be worthwhile for readers to visit.

However, linking to a pseudonym is not going to be clear or able to be attributed to that scholar. While William Sealy Gosset stuck to a pseudonym, he also had a non-academic job to protect.

There are citation formats for message board postings, etc. in various citation systems, as shown here for MLA from Purdue's Online Writing Lab:

Include screen names as author names when author name is not known. If both names are known, place the author’s name in brackets.

Editor, screen name, author, or compiler name (if available). “Posting Title.” Name of Site, Version number (if available), Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), URL. Date of access.

Salmar1515 [Sal Hernandez]. “Re: Best Strategy: Fenced Pastures vs. Max Number of Rooms?” BoardGameGeek, 29 Sept. 2008, boardgamegeek.com/thread/343929/best-strategy-fenced-pastures-vs-max-number-rooms. Accessed 5 Apr. 2009

The best practice is to use both screen name and real name, "if known."

HOWEVER. I think the best practice, instead of violating pseudonymity, would be to send an email to the academic email address of the person you believe this is. Say that you are interested in citing this, and wonder if they would prefer this to be cited with both names, as "personal communication" with their academic name, as some closely related work they had on a blog post under their academic name, etc.

If the person declines to confirm that they are this person, you can ask in a MathOverflow chat or as a comment to that answer whether/how that user would like to be cited.

If you are truly hoping to honor and thank them--especially if it is an acknowledgement rather than a citation--then give them the courtesy of having some say in how they are recognized and whether their pseudonym becomes published knowledge.

EDIT specific to MathOverflow: MathOverflow is indeed cited fairly often, and it appears that most of the top citations are to real names, according to a Google Scholar search. One could avoid (newly) revealing the person's identity by searching to see if the person's real name is already associated with MathOverflow on Google Scholar, check the post to see if it's the same username/permanent identifier, and if so, cite in the same way the previous person did.

Discrete Lizard offers a Meta MathOverflow post dealing with a very similar issue, which suggests leaving a comment asking, and/or asking moderators to send a message to the user and ask. Finally, Peter Taylor mentions that the norm on MathOverflow is to use real names, such that many of the user names already reveal one's identity.

Community
  • 1
cactus_pardner
  • 6,750
  • 1
  • 19
  • 49
  • 6
    Actually I tried to contact this real person, but he did not reply. So in this case what can I do? – user531706 Apr 11 '18 at 02:59
  • @user531706 Hmm... I was just curious how often Mathoverflow is indeed cited, and it appears that most of the top citations are to real names: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C3&q=mathoverflow&btnG= The easiest answer would be to see if the person's real name is already associated with Mathoverflow on Google Scholar, check the post to see if it's the same username, and if so, cite in the same way the previous person did. – cactus_pardner Apr 11 '18 at 03:01
  • 15
    You could also (maybe???) ask on MathOverflow Meta what the norms are about pseudonyms and when/how to acknowledge someone's real name vs. their username. @user531706 – cactus_pardner Apr 11 '18 at 03:02
  • 5
    The norm on Math Overflow is to use real names. – Peter Taylor Apr 11 '18 at 07:33
  • 6
    @PeterTaylor But not everyone does that, there are pseudonymous or anonymous users. – Discrete lizard Apr 11 '18 at 07:33
  • @cactus_pardner What about offering the user co-authership? – user531706 Apr 11 '18 at 18:07
  • 1
    @user531706 Based on the question, I think going from acknowledgement to coauthorship is far too extreme. :) I believe there's a question about anonymous article authorship somewhere on this SE, but that would definitely be a separate question. – cactus_pardner Apr 11 '18 at 20:06
  • @user531706 Also, I doubt that anyone will change their answer if they think it is a citation vs. coauthorship on the line. Younger scholars will probably appreciate the citation (and/or have time to write back), while older scholars who don't have time to deal with it / who highly value their pseudonymity for a citation are unlikely to be persuaded by coauthorship. – cactus_pardner Apr 11 '18 at 20:20
  • 1
    I thought Gosset was essentially forced to publish under a pseudonym by his employer, but in any case the wikipedia article you link to does not indicate a definite resolution to this question. – Kimball Apr 11 '18 at 22:38
  • @Kimball Ah, you're right that it was Guinness policy; after Student, his colleagues published as "Sophister" and "Mathetes," according to this 1930 history: https://doi.org/10.1080%2F01621459.1930.10503118 – cactus_pardner Apr 12 '18 at 03:46
  • 1
    Note that usernames may well change on stack-exchange, or be shared by multiple people. Without a link to the post, the username is meaningless, and with the link, the username is a little ornamental/appreciative, rather than functional. – jpaugh Apr 13 '18 at 06:46
  • 1
    @jpaugh Good point. On the MathOverflow Meta discussion, some people suggest documenting the unique user number from the poster's profile page. That would help if multiple people use the same username or the name changes, but sort of sidesteps the issue of anonymity/pseudonymity. (For instance, did the person purposefully choose "guest" or change username because of such issues?) https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/3460/how-does-one-cite-a-mo-post-with-an-anonymous-author – cactus_pardner Apr 13 '18 at 21:07
  • @Discretelizard Thanks so much for the link to the relevant MathOverflow Meta post! And I am shocked that Discrete lizard may not be your real name! (Cf. http://www.mcescher.com/gallery/back-in-holland/no-56-lizard/) – cactus_pardner Apr 13 '18 at 21:11
43

Don't acknowledge, cite the Mathoverflow post!

The following theorem is taken from [1] ...

[1] A. User, blah blah,

Mathoverflow has also a cite function at the bottom of the posts to retrieve a possible reference in various formats (e.g. BibTeX).

Massimo Ortolano
  • 55,428
  • 19
  • 166
  • 207
  • Most journals may not appreciate citations from Mathoverflow. Will it be a problem if I don’t cite it? – user531706 Apr 11 '18 at 02:42
  • 21
    @user531706 I know no journal that wouldn't appreciate such a citation. – Massimo Ortolano Apr 11 '18 at 02:45
  • 1
    But what if the Mathoverflow link is dysfunctional later? Or edited greatly later? – user531706 Apr 11 '18 at 02:51
  • 16
    @user531706 That's why there's a "Date accessed" field in bibliographic software as a parameter related to URLs. If this is a key resource, and since there is some possibility of it changing, I recommend you take a screenshot and/or save the webpage as of your official date accessed. – cactus_pardner Apr 11 '18 at 02:56
  • 19
    You may also request that the Web Archive store the page for that date. See the "Save Page Now" in the lower right. – doppelgreener Apr 11 '18 at 08:10
  • 1
    Something is not clear to me here, it means you disclose your stackexchange account name to everyone who reads that paper. Not everyone may like that! And I guess that may be among the reasons why people don't use their full names. – Abdulhameed Apr 11 '18 at 13:44
  • 3
    @Abdulhameed if you're quoting someone else's post, you're disclosing their accountname, not your own. – JAD Apr 11 '18 at 14:04
  • 3
    In many cases, the author of the paper could have asked the question – Abdulhameed Apr 11 '18 at 14:24
  • 5
    @user531706: MathOverflow (along with the rest of the SE network) is better at archival than many journals around. The specific link might change in a generation, but the content is no less likely to remain available (and findable) than any other content. – darij grinberg Apr 11 '18 at 21:47
  • @MassimoOrtolano I know of several journals that would accept such a citation, because I have cited StackOverflow posts in my journal papers, and my StackOverflow posts have been cited in others' journal papers. – JeffE Apr 14 '18 at 17:35
  • 1
    @user531706 But what if the Annals or Nature are dysfunctional later? – JeffE Apr 14 '18 at 17:35
  • @JAD Not necessarily. I am not sure if that's what Abdulhameed is referring to, but there is a weird feature in the link obtained by clicking on 'share' on Stack Exchange: it includes the account id number of the person who clicked on 'share' --- and hence it can accidentally reveal the identity of this user. – Federico Poloni Apr 15 '18 at 12:45
  • @FedericoPoloni that's only if you use the link supplied by the share button. Any other links won't include your own user id. – JAD Apr 15 '18 at 13:52
6

I would cite the contribution. Web citation is common. Yes, it is NOT as good as citing archived paper journal literature (web is very unarchival). But so what. You do the best you can. People cite personal communications, unpublished work, etc. You do what you can.

You could also acknowledge the person in the "Acknowledgements" section. Most people just list funding agencies here, but I ended up having a lot of great mentor type conversations with people during my Ph.D. (more so than with my advisor). So I just acknowledged them.

guest
  • 61
  • 1