Welcome to the Ontok research citation guidelines. These notes are designed to assist Ontok contributors in properly formatting their citations.
When writing for Ontok, it is important to maintain clarity and consistency in your citations. Below are the key points to consider:
- Use a standard citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) as appropriate for your content.
- Ensure all sources are credible and relevant to your topic.
- Include complete information for each source, such as author names, publication dates, titles, and URLs if applicable.
- Double-check for accuracy and consistency in formatting throughout your document.
By following these guidelines, you will contribute to the high standards of clarity and professionalism that Ontok aims to uphold. Thank you for your commitment to quality research and writing.
Citing Technical and Network Sources
Network and technology writing draws on sources that rarely look like a journal article, so a few extra conventions help keep citations useful. The most common are standards documents, vendor documentation, datasets and live web resources, and each needs slightly different handling.
Standards and specifications
When you reference a protocol, cite the defining document by its identifier as well as its title, for example an IETF RFC number or an IEEE standard designation. RFCs are never revised in place; updates are published as new numbers, so always cite the specific RFC you read and note if it has been obsoleted or updated by a later one. For IEEE, ITU or similar bodies, include the year or revision, because amendments can change behaviour significantly.
Vendor documentation and release notes
Product guides change with firmware and software versions. Record the product name, the software or firmware version the document covers, and the date you accessed it. A sentence such as "behaviour observed on version 17.x" is far more helpful to a reader than a bare link to a landing page that may later point somewhere else.
Online and changing sources
For blog posts, forum threads, dashboards and status pages, include an access date. Where possible, prefer a stable permalink or an archived copy over a search result or a session-specific URL. If a source is likely to disappear, quote the key line briefly in your text so the claim still stands on its own.
Data, measurements and diagrams
If you use latency figures, routing tables or traffic measurements, state where the data came from, when it was collected and under what conditions. Topology maps and diagrams adapted from another source should credit the original, and redrawn versions should say so. This matters especially for material submitted alongside our research briefs and the maps on the network pages.
A quick pre-submission check
- Every factual claim that is not common knowledge has a source.
- Identifiers, versions and access dates are present where relevant.
- Links open to the intended content, not a redirect or login page.
- Paraphrases are accurate and direct quotes are marked as such.
Questions about an unusual source type can be raised through the contact page before you submit.
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