1

I've seen many questions that quotes texts or even images (from manga), but fails to specify the page, title or author. I sometimes suspect that the contributor deliberately obscure where it comes from, but have no idea why one would want that.

In the community of Japanese Language Stack Exchange, citing sources are often discussed in the context of providing context to the question. As suggested in a comment for the "Explicit rule about..." post on Sept 2020 above, our help centre mentions providing context. The importance of context and the tendency of users to acknowledge it lead to the "What should I do if..." post above, and if I understand correctly, the answer for the post is often used to encourage users to add more context to their question. It does have a section about "Always provide the title if you can", but I don't think much emphasis is put in this part.

Now, there are cases where they provide context by quoting, but without attributing to the original. This is what I find seriously problematic: First, it lacks proper respect to the author. Second, I find it hard to believe that it can get away from accusations of copyright infringement. As far as I understand, quoting in general is allowed, roughly speaking, only when one make clear distinction of the part quoted and give proper attribution (both in the context of copyright and research misconduct). I understand we might not be able to aim for complete clearance, but we should at least meet the very basic requirements. Third, it makes it hard for the reader and other participants to actually access to the source in order to learn more about the context. Fourth, the source itself contains many clues to understand the expression used there: Is it casual, highbrow, or "light novel" kind of fiction? Does it come from a particular period of time when certain expression was widespread?

Personally, I'm silently frustrated by other users' behaviour in this regard and therefore would agree with a new rule for immediate deletion or closure of any questions that quote, but do not attribute, any piece of copyrighted material. However I admit it's too extreme. What I wanted from raising this question is: (1) Hear from other users' opinions and discuss what we can or should do (2) If enough people agree, I would like this question and comminty-wiki answer to be used to notify users, just as "What should I do if'..." question above (3) If there are major agreement, we might add a clause to the help centre?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

If you use a part of the material you're reading/watching in your question, always specify where it comes from. Not only a way to show proper respect to the author, it is one of the requirements when using others' works in your writings.

Although using one of the popular citation styles is helpful in terms of consistency and convenience, it is not necessary. Please make sure that others can specify which part of what book/manga/anime is quoted in your question.

Attribution for books

  • Give the tile and author of the book, and the volume if it's from a series. The publisher and the year of publication is often helpful. Specifying the pages is also encouraged.

Attribution for anime / TV drama / films

  • Give the title, episode and season (if applicable). As the title may not be unique to the material in question, adding the year is helpful to distinguish.

Attribution for online materials, including podcasts, videos and documents

  • Give the title, author if known, name of the website, and URL to the material. If it forms a series, specify which one of the episodes the material in question belongs.
1
  • This is a community wiki answer to my own question. My intent is that if enough people agree and improve this answer, it might work as a useful link to direct users to add attributions.
    – Yosh
    Commented Jul 12 at 8:14

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .