"Cite your sources."
The admonition rings in the ear of every slapdash undergraduate and corner-cutting postdoc. But have we taken the emphasis on citation too far?
From an early age, we are taught to acknowledge those whose ideas and insights have shaped our thinking. During our academic careers, we learn to provide correct attribution for the existing words, data or images that we are using. And "credit where credit is due" is the axial principle around which the entire scholarly publication system revolves.