Field of Science

Citing papers from the future

Ok. I'm getting rather annoyed. SOMEONE keeps on citing papers from the future. HIS OWN papers from the future. Now I know that it's common practice to cite "Bob accepted" or "Bob in review", but "submitted for publication"?! What the fuck? What next, we're gonna have "Smith et al. in preparation" or "Smith et al. writing grant proposal"!?

I really really REALLY want this paper. And I've been waiting for it. Almost the entire year. This one:
Cavalier-Smith T. Intracellular coevolution and the origin the cell nucleus and sex, submitted for publication.
It is only mentioned in ONE PLACE IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE: The references section of this wonderful Review of Everything: TC-S 2009 Int J Biochem & Cell Biol Predation and eukaryote cell origins: A coevolutionary perspective. A really nice paper, by the way, except for the whole 'citing papers from the future' drama. Heavily referring to that non-existent paper. Kind of like "Hang on a sec, I'll explain that in the next paper...sometime...eventually..." Note that it was published online in October 2008; I wonder if his Giant Review of Sex, the Universe and Everything has been rejected, considering it's been a year. Anyone happen to know of any updates on that paper?

The suspense is horrible. It's like watching part I of a movie, leaving off at a cliffhanger, and not knowing whether part II will ever come out. Of course, there's always fanfiction. o_O Academic fanfiction. TC-S fanfiction*...oh god, I think I've just discovered a genre that was never meant to exist. What have I done?

As for my Sunday Protist...it's, well, in preparation...

*That's right, I can write MY OWN damn TC-S Reviews of Everything. Ooooh, this could be kinda fun! I could heavily refer to events that would happen in the sequels. And then never write them. Prompting more fanfiction...

6 comments:

  1. I had never come across future-citations before...I guess I've always thought of citations as things you point to to give other people a better idea and further reading, as well as for aknowledgement (possible spelling error there, sorry it's late).

    The idea of journal-based fanfiction boggles the mind...and kind of invokes rule 34 which is worrying.

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  2. I've seen this too many times for my own good, probably. I blame COGS.

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  3. @Lab Rat: Thanks. Now I'll never think of alpha-helices and beta-barrels the same way ever again...

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  4. Journal-based fanfic does indeed sound like a pretty ick idea, but then I should point out that the large number of people who participated in the group performance of the Chlamydomonas mating dance at the last ISEP meeting implies that perhaps it is not entirely unwarranted.

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  5. Names please. Such information has no right to remain private =P

    *thinks of certain people doing the chlamy mating dance* Mind, sit. Bad mind. No cookie.

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  6. EMBARESSING FACT I'VE JUST REMEMBERED: I've written biological fanfic :s

    I was in a lecture and bored, and it was basically a kind of western flick/mafia movie set inside a cell. Main characters were Fos and Jun (you'll get it if you've studied signalling) and there was this whole narcotics empire based around phosphate transfer and controlled by Ras, who was basically this Godfather type guy.

    Strangely it kind of worked as a story... and it kept me going through the signalling lectures.

    (and before you ask it *wasn't* slash... but it could easily have ended up there :p )

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