Understanding the Citation and Way Forward

Research writing is a complex and arduous process that requires valid, concise, and accurate information. The writing process requires significant source from the findings of current work and from the existing or published studies. Thus, good research writing must be associated with good citations. Citation is the academic marker to represent where the information is sourced. Referencing is the action of giving credit to the published article when the information is utilized while writing a research paper.1 Citation is the way to disseminate the published findings when the information had contributed during research analysis. Citation should be made when a published study provides best work or content can be related.2 In the recent days, citation is considered to be providing merit for the sourced information and hence it helps in measuring the impact of research or scholarly work. Hirsch index (H index) measures author level metrics on productivity and impact of scholarly research. In other words, more the research work is cited, higher is the value. H index value can be calculated for an individual researcher, group of researchers, department, or university. Thus, it can be said that H index helps in ranking the researcher and research work. Hence, researcher must be ethical while citing an information from published source. Self-citation is referencing your own previously published data. This can be done when the information is adequately relevant and must be avoided when it not required.