The talent around us benefits our work. Publication style guides call for us to cite articles, books, and personal communications, but not our editors. What does this convention cost us? Will new technologies like blockchain enable us to gain the value of better citing all our sources?

T Is for Talent -- Often Hidden

Susannah Schmidt, the editor for my recent piece in The Conversation: Why using AI tools like ChatGPT in my MBA innovation course is expected and not cheating is an excellent example of uncredited value. Beyond her knowledge of the audience and style of The Conversation, Susannah offered insights and ideas for improvement. There is irony in this given that one of my main points in the article is that using technology isn't cheating, but not citing your sources is.

I’ve had many fantastic editors over the years. We sometimes footnote an idea or analysis suggested by these collaborators, but not often. When we don't fully source our writing, we limit the provenance of our work.

Knowledge Management

I motivate my students to use citations by making connections to the value of knowledge management. A 2017 ICD survey found people spend 19% of data activities time searching for the data. How can you validate your claims and check your results if you can't recall the source of your inspiration, data, or workflow?

Counterpoint

The publication style guides may be right. Publications credit the editors in the introductory material. This acknowledgment solves the ethical issue of editorial contribution. Editors edit, enough said. 

Limiting our references may better support the creativity of those who follow. Kane and Ransbotham find that contributors to Wikipedia articles fall off as the topic matures. If a more substantial network of references makes it appear that all the good ideas are already on the table, what happens to future insights? Are we more likely to contribute if we can stand on the shoulders of giants? Or are we less likely as attention, funding, and willingness to take risks fall off in the face of more established findings? (Thanks to colleague Ian McCarthy for a tweet sending me down this path).

The Future

I had the chance for a sit-down with Phil Simon this week. He's working on a new book, The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace. One of his forces is the application of blockchain technologiess -- global distributed ledgers that store and track digital assets and information. Just as hyperlinks can simplify how we connect to our sources, I hope we use blockchains to map the full provenance of the ideas without reducing the article's readability.

As always, I don’t expect a singular solution. We must consider a mix of talent, technology, and technique. What’s essential in this time of dramatic technological change is that we mindfully adjust our workflows with these new technologies.

Next Up

A good editor stays in your head. In this case, I hear decades of editors coaching me to stay focused. I'll save another of Susannah’s suggestions for a follow-up post on writing methodology in the age of generative AI: T is for Technology and Technique. Please let me know your thoughts and critiques in the comments below -- a direct way to document the contribution of your ideas!