Frequent citation of publications without original primary data creates false authority.
Named from Winnie-the-Pooh, where Pooh and Piglet track their own footprints and conclude a Woozle exists. Citation chains that lead back to a single unsupported source produce the same effect.
In practice
- A figure appears in a press release, is quoted in a committee report, and is then cited back to the committee as independent corroboration.
- A statistic cited in four papers that all trace to one unsourced 1978 estimate has acquired authority from circulation rather than from evidence.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Science & Epistemology
- Essay
- The ways evidence misleads