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).
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).