IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 52, NO. 5, MAY 2005 637

Proper Referencing of Prior Art

I N SEPTEMBER 1999, we had published an editorial [1] inIEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES (T-ED) em-

phasizing the need for authors to pay special attention whilereferencing previously published related information. As I hadmentioned at that time, omitting related work is not only un-fair to researcher(s) who have made earlier contributions to thefield but it also gives a distorted view of the topic to the reader.More importantly, it demonstrates an author’s lack of knowl-edge of prior art in their area of research. Hence, there may besignificant room for improvement in the technical quality of themanuscript.

Since then, we have continually sensitized the authors to thisimportant issue before adopting the following measures. Everyyear, the Electron Devices Society (EDS) confers its prestigiousPaul Rappaport and the more recent George Smith [2] awardsfor best papers published in our flagship publications IEEET-ED and ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS (EDL), respectively. Toreward proper citation philosophy in EDS publications, we havenow instituted clear guidelines to take this factor into accountin the paper selection process for these awards. Also, we havetightened up the manuscript review process for both T-ED andEDL to make incomplete citations as grounds for rejection.

Another related development worth noting is the publicationof an EDS archival DVD. In the not-so-old days, literaturesearch was a major undertaking. One had to physically visit alibrary, locate the bound volume, and make a photocopy of thearticle. To help relieve this arduous task of information searchand retrieval, in December, 2004 we published an archivalDVD. This DVD [3] includes all issues of T-ED from 1954to August 2004, all issues of EDL from 1980 to August 2004,and all technical digests of the International Electron DevicesMeeting from 1955 to 2004. Later issues are available on IEEEXplore. All articles are in fully searchable PDF format. SinceEDS publications capture a substantial portion of importantpublication activity in the field of electron devices, this DVDshould greatly facilitate the referencing process.

A question worth addressing is what constitutes a profes-sional, ethical, and thorough citation philosophy and under whatconditions one may not have to cite prior art. In most cases, theanswer is rather obvious. For example, Ohm’s law is commonknowledge, can be found in most textbooks, and, hence, shouldbe used without citation. Next, let us look at some other il-lustrative examples. Consider the patent disclosed by Shockleydealing with ion implantation [4] in 1957. If a paper discusses anew method of doping semiconductors, it is obligatory to referto ion implantation and to Shockley’s original patent. Absenceof ion implantation in the discussion can result in several short-comings. First, it will give the reader an incomplete view of thecurrent state of the art in the field. Second, proposing a newtechnique of doping semiconductors without full knowledge ofion implantation and its strengths and weaknesses would make

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TED.2005.848132

the contribution amenable to straightforward enhancement. Dis-cussing ion implantation but not referring to the original patentis unfair to the original contributor. On the other hand, if a paperdeals with optimizing the doping profile in a junction it may notbe necessary to quote Shockley. Let us dig deeper to bring homea subtle point. Let us suppose that an author publishes paper Ain the year 2005 on ion implantation properly citing Shockleyand subsequent related work in the field. It would be viewed ashighly unethical to restart the clock as of 2005 by solely refer-ring to an author’s own work in all future papers dealing withthis topic even if they are extensions of paper A. This wouldgive a false impression to a novice that the author is the pioneerin the field, since it would appear that nothing ever took placebefore 2005.

How about topics are related but not the same? Consider thework done by van der Ziel on thermal noise in JFETs [5] in 1962.If a paper deals with flicker noise in JFETs, it may not be nec-essary to quote van der Ziel, although it would be desirable. If,however, the paper deals with the calculation of thermal noisein a newly invented device, referral to van der Ziel’s originalcontribution will demonstrate the breadth of the author’s knowl-edge bringing, the author more credibility and respect. Further,the author will be recognized for the fact that he/she has alreadyassimilated van der Ziel’s contributions and, wherever possible,the current work takes advantage of this knowledge.

It must also be emphasized that in addition to original con-tributions, key developments thereafter that impact the currentresearch should not be ignored either. Also, discussion of resultsfrom competing research groups that are either at odds or sup-port the current findings constitute a well-written manuscript.Such practices will create a healthy environment where priorknowledge is leveraged to its fullest extent. This will shortenR&D cycles and accelerate the pace of knowledge creation andeconomic growth. Also, it will result in proper credit being givenwhere it is due, resulting in a win–win situation for everyone in-volved.

R. P. JINDAL, EDS Vice-President of PublicationsUniversity of Louisiana at LafayetteLafayette, LA 70504 USA

REFERENCES

[1] R. P. Jindal, “A call for excellence,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol.46, no. 9, p. 1817, Sep. 1999.

[2] , “George E. Smith award,” IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 23, no.8, p. 445, Aug. 2002.

[3] , “EDS announces its archival collection on DVD,” IEEE ElectronDevices Society Newsletter, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 3–4, Jan. 2005, submittedfor publication.

[4] W. Shockley, “ Forming Semiconductor Devices by Ionic Bombard-ment,” US Patent 2787564, Apr. 1957.

[5] A. van der Ziel, “ Thermal noise in field effect transistors,” Proc. IRE,vol. 50, no. 8, pp. 1808–1812, Aug. 1962.

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