Why I don't cite my sources even though I should

 

I’m a strong believer in good scientific practice, and one of the biggest parts of doing good science education is rigorously citing your sources so readers know that the information is reputable and they can learn more if they want to. However, I don’t intend to cite my sources in this blog, at least in the near term.

Fact-checkers and editors deserve enormous credit for their contributions to educational media of all kinds, because it can easily take twice as long to track down and rigorously cite sources as the time it takes to write an article. I write this blog alone as a hobby, so adding full citations to each article would require enough time and effort for me that it would turn this hobby into a job. I’m not interested in making this blog my job at this time, although if you want to send me a donation I certainly wouldn’t complain *wink*.

For now I am drawing my information from the knowledge I have accumulated from my 10 years as a scientist along with occasional outside sources to fill gaps in my knowledge, rather than rigorously sourcing even facts that I already know. That said though if you, dear reader, ever want a specific source for anything that you read here, please reach out to me via DM, e-mail, or @samthescientist.bsky.social on Blue Sky and I will gladly dig up reputable sources for specific requests.

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