Want to cite the Oikos Blog? Here's how! (UPDATED)

My fellow editor Mark Vellend just emailed me with the fruits of his research on how to formally cite blog posts. While standards are still evolving and many ecology journals have no official policy, you can find guidance here and here. (UPDATE: second link fixed)

The latter link includes advice on how to cite pseudonyms, which uses the unintentionally amusing example of citing the Dalai Lama. Mark points out that someone following the linked guidance would list the author of my posts as "oikosjeremy" rather than Jeremy Fox. Which I don't really think is a big deal--it's not like it's a secret who "oikosjeremy" is. Mark suggests that I may want to stop blogging under a pseudonym, in anticipation of being cited. On the contrary, my thought is to start blogging under a different, more entertaining pseudonym. Like "Charles Darwin". Or "thegreatestecologistintheworld", like in the old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin signs his homework "Calvin, Boy of Destiny". Or maybe "Author's Name", so that the citation would read "A. Name". Kind of like when two British football (soccer) players a few years ago bought a couple of racehorses and named them "Some Horse" and "Another Horse" in the hopes that one day an announcer calling a horse race would be forced to say "And down the stretch they come, it's some horse leading by a length over another horse!" ;-) (UPDATE: I've chickened out and changed my display name to my real name).

I know you're going to do it anyway, so go ahead and suggest new pseudonyms for me in the comments. Indeed, I predict that top commenter Jim Bouldin is going to spend hours thinking up suggestions on this. ;-)

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