academic work and reflowing pages

Indigo Ink · 03-01-2009, 10:31 PM

Hi

I am not sure if this is the right section for this question, but felt that this would be the most suitable. Just came to my mind that in the academic world one almost always gives a citation on the basis of page number, does this mean one would have problem when one buys a book say on kindle or any reflowable format (and I have some experience with mobi - which always has trouble in maintaining page numbers). So for now do you think one is stuck with pdf of the non reflowable type if one buys a text book or any other book for purely academic purpose?

cerement · 03-11-2009, 02:29 AM

Heh, could see where this would be a problem when there are no "page numbers" per se (and since people are still confused about how the Kindle determines "location") ...

I think best bet would be to actually look back to past examples like quoting Shakespeare or King James Bible. Reference by Act, Chapter, Line (Sentence?) or by Book, Chapter, Line ... "Line" at least would still be valid for poetry and plays ...

Of course, referencing Finnegan's Wake this way would be ... problematic ...

thibaulthalpern · 03-11-2009, 02:57 AM

Hmm...referencing line, act, chapter and so forth does not work for the majority of academic texts because we don't sequence our text that way. It's not a play after all. I have wondered about this problem of citation for ebooks too.

Look at this website for a short example of what APA and MLA suggests:
http://www.lambuth.edu/academics/lib...ingebooks.html

However, this is not too helpful because we won't be able to quickly locate a particular quote (no page number cited) unless we use the ebook which then means we'd have to have access to a reader that can read that ebook.

03-01-2009, 10:31 PM	#1
Indigo Ink The curious one! Posts: 82 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: India Device: Kindle 3, Nook, Ebookman 901	academic work and reflowing pages Hi I am not sure if this is the right section for this question, but felt that this would be the most suitable. Just came to my mind that in the academic world one almost always gives a citation on the basis of page number, does this mean one would have problem when one buys a book say on kindle or any reflowable format (and I have some experience with mobi - which always has trouble in maintaining page numbers). So for now do you think one is stuck with pdf of the non reflowable type if one buys a text book or any other book for purely academic purpose?

03-11-2009, 02:29 AM	#2
cerement Groupie Posts: 170 Karma: 2000 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: San José, CA Device: Amazon Kindle 1, Sony PRS-300, Amazon Kindle 3	Heh, could see where this would be a problem when there are no "page numbers" per se (and since people are still confused about how the Kindle determines "location") ... I think best bet would be to actually look back to past examples like quoting Shakespeare or King James Bible. Reference by Act, Chapter, Line (Sentence?) or by Book, Chapter, Line ... "Line" at least would still be valid for poetry and plays ... Of course, referencing Finnegan's Wake this way would be ... problematic ... Last edited by cerement; 03-11-2009 at 02:32 AM.

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03-11-2009, 02:57 AM	#3
thibaulthalpern Evangelist Posts: 478 Karma: 451808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Device: my two eyes, KLiiK, Sony PRS-700	Hmm...referencing line, act, chapter and so forth does not work for the majority of academic texts because we don't sequence our text that way. It's not a play after all. I have wondered about this problem of citation for ebooks too. Look at this website for a short example of what APA and MLA suggests: http://www.lambuth.edu/academics/lib...ingebooks.html However, this is not too helpful because we won't be able to quickly locate a particular quote (no page number cited) unless we use the ebook which then means we'd have to have access to a reader that can read that ebook.

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