As to your other question: I suspect that the first author to mis-cite Grady was Karl Wiegers in his requirements book (from 2003 or 2004), he’s also the author of the Serena paper listed above. A very nice person, by the way—he kindly sent me an electronic copy of the Grady presentation. At least he’s read it. I’m pretty damn sure that secondary citations afterwards are from people who haven’t.
Well, if he has read the Grady paper and cited it wrong, most likely that he has got his nice graph from somewhere… I wonder who and why published this graph for the first time.
About references—well, what discipline is not diseased like that? We are talking about something that people (rightly or wrongly) equate with common sense in the field. People want to cite some widely accepted statement, which agrees with their perceived experience. And the deadline is nigh. If they find an article with such a result, they are happy. If they find a couple of articles referencing this result, they steal the citation. After all, who cares what to cite, everybody knows this, right?
I am not sure that even in maths the situation is significantly better. There are fresher results where you understand how to find a paper to reference, there are older results that can be found in university textbooks, and there is middle ground where you either find something that looks like a good enough reference or have to include a sketch if the proof. (I have done the latter for some relatively simple result in a maths article).
No offence taken.
As to your other question: I suspect that the first author to mis-cite Grady was Karl Wiegers in his requirements book (from 2003 or 2004), he’s also the author of the Serena paper listed above. A very nice person, by the way—he kindly sent me an electronic copy of the Grady presentation. At least he’s read it. I’m pretty damn sure that secondary citations afterwards are from people who haven’t.
Well, if he has read the Grady paper and cited it wrong, most likely that he has got his nice graph from somewhere… I wonder who and why published this graph for the first time.
About references—well, what discipline is not diseased like that? We are talking about something that people (rightly or wrongly) equate with common sense in the field. People want to cite some widely accepted statement, which agrees with their perceived experience. And the deadline is nigh. If they find an article with such a result, they are happy. If they find a couple of articles referencing this result, they steal the citation. After all, who cares what to cite, everybody knows this, right?
I am not sure that even in maths the situation is significantly better. There are fresher results where you understand how to find a paper to reference, there are older results that can be found in university textbooks, and there is middle ground where you either find something that looks like a good enough reference or have to include a sketch if the proof. (I have done the latter for some relatively simple result in a maths article).