the semantics of references in academic papers

[gusl]

If you see a quote like:

A: "The problem of P has been previously treated in context C (Bovik, 2005)."

or

B: "The problem of P has been previously treated in context C [1]."

[1] Bovik, Harry Q, 2005 - TheBook.


is the author saying that Bovik has treated problem P in TheBook, or that Bovik has stated this in TheBook (i.e. the author is giving his source for the claim above)? Unfortunately, English has no evidentiality.

Also, when should you use style A vs style B?

Comments

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I guess my Master's thesis was in the humanities then.

[roseandsigil.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming that's sarcasm, in which case, I think it's really a per-journal or per-publisher thing, and what I said was only broad tendencies, and there, probably just in the U.S. (where did you do your Master's work?).

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

It was friendly semi-sarcasm. I agree with your observations.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I did my Master's at the ILLC in Amsterdam.

[simrob.livejournal.com]

Well, you know those crazy europeans ;-)