Is it okay to cite a paper written by your professor?

[Canadave]

I know we have some university professors on here, so I thought I'd throw this out there. I'm currently working on a term paper for my class on transnational migration and settlement. My topic is Chinese settlement in North American cities, incidentally, if anyone is interested.

Anyway, I'm doing a section on the suburbanization of Chinese immigration, and I found a paper that back up my argument perfectly—the only problem is, it was co-written by my professor. I've never run into this kind of situation before, and I'm wondering if it's okay to go ahead and use it as a source? I've had very little luck finding similar papers that I can access through my school's library, so I'd hate to have to search out another...

 

[Hermiod]

One of my professors repeatedly tried to sell us their own book as "essential" reading material, so I suspect you will be fine. Just because one of your own professors wrote the material doesn't make it incorrect.

 

[tharpdevenport]

It depends on whether you cite it with good intentions, or to show he was wrong. ;-)

 

[JoeZhang]

No problem at all, if it's a valid scholarly text to cite in support of your argument or for the purposes of establishing the literature in the area.

One of my lecturers (and later my PhD supervisor) is the most cited person in my field, so it would have been odd not to cite him...

 

[Canadave]

All right, three reassuring answers, I feel better now.

 

[farmkid]

You might want to be a little more careful in how you use the paper for information. After all, it wouldn't look good if you cite the paper, then go on to show that you don't understand it.

 

[JonathonWally]

Depends on much of ass you wanna kiss.

 

[Kommander]

As long as you're not planning on plagiarizing the paper, which would be stupider than plagiarizing Wikipedia by an order of magnitude, you should be fine. The only potential problem I can think of, as mentioned above by JonathonWally, is that you may come off as a kiss-ass.

 

[Count Zero]

I've done it, and it shouldn't be a problem.
It's much weirder if you have to reference the work of a professor during a presentation in his presence.

 

[eastman23]

I've done it, and it shouldn't be a problem.
It's much weirder if you have to reference the work of a professor during a presentation in his presence.

Tell me about it.

In one class I took a couple years ago, we were given a list of topics/papers to present on and the one my team picked just happened to be the one co-authored by the prof himself. Which of course meant we couldn't BS our way through it.

 

[Tim]

Depends on much of ass you wanna kiss.

Wrong. If it is truly the most appropriate reference, then I see no problem in citing it. I've done precisely the same thing in my published papers. I've also cited other work on which I was an author to buttress claims in a new paper. It's commonly done and as long as the intentions are in the right place, there's nothing wrong with it at all.

 

[Canadave]

Depends on much of ass you wanna kiss.

Wrong. If it is truly the most appropriate reference, then I see no problem in citing it. I've done precisely the same thing in my published papers. I've also cited other work on which I was an author to buttress claims in a new paper. It's commonly done and as long as the intentions are in the right place, there's nothing wrong with it at all.

That's exactly how I used it, too. I needed evidence for the fact that Chinese immigrants to North America are now settling in suburbs rather than the inner city, and that's exactly what the paper was about. Couldn't have asked for a better source, actually, which is why I would have been annoyed if it was generally not seen as kosher.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Depends on much of ass you wanna kiss.

Yeah, you're fine doing it. You just have to be careful you don't come off looking like your trying to kiss ass. Maybe use it sparingly.

Considering that people who write books often cite other books they've written, this is at least better than that.

 

[mimic]

For your amusement

Just treat it like it's any other author. If you continue researching in the field you'll probably know many of these people anyway on some level, so you'd better get used to citing people you know.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I think your professor would be okay just as long as you cite the work properly. But it is also a double edged sword to quote your professor. On the one hand he might love that you consider him an "expert" and are quoting him. On the other hand if you do not properly understand what he wrote and used his materially incorrectly he might get really mad.

 

[Danoz]

I know we have some university professors on here, so I thought I'd throw this out there. I'm currently working on a term paper for my class on transnational migration and settlement. My topic is Chinese settlement in North American cities, incidentally, if anyone is interested.

Anyway, I'm doing a section on the suburbanization of Chinese immigration, and I found a paper that back up my argument perfectly—the only problem is, it was co-written by my professor. I've never run into this kind of situation before, and I'm wondering if it's okay to go ahead and use it as a source? I've had very little luck finding similar papers that I can access through my school's library, so I'd hate to have to search out another...

Haha, you'll be fine. However, he may be more impressed if you find the sources he used-- source them AND source him (just do it cleverly-- source some of the raw data back to his source and then source his analysis on the material). Granted, I can't see this in front of me-- but good luck!

 

[Holdfast]

I've done it, and it shouldn't be a problem.
It's much weirder if you have to reference the work of a professor during a presentation in his presence.

Been there, done that, took the piss out of their work a bit...

... without realising they were in the audience...

Actually I covered pretty well by the end, but it was amusing.

 

[Goliath]

You might want to be a little more careful in how you use the paper for information. After all, it wouldn't look good if you cite the paper, then go on to show that you don't understand it.

Yes.

I don't know about other professors, but I have actually enjoyed it when students have critiqued my published work.

Since I know my own work inside and out, it can actually lead to very interesting discussions and debates. Students react especially well when I admit the shortcomings in my work, and explain the problems and limitations that produced those shortcomings. I guess it humanizes me.

I have also had colleagues assign my work as readings in their courses, and I have enjoyed hearing about what students thought, afterward.

 

[Tim]

Students react especially well when I admit the shortcomings in my work, and explain the problems and limitations that produced those shortcomings. I guess it humanizes me.

People in my field would benefit from this worldview.