Dear ACS Network members,
I have a question for the community. During a literature review, I found an early paper from the 1950’s that discusses a reaction that I am studying. This paper also cites two very early studies from the 1930’s. Both of these papers are from journals that are no longer in publication and were not written in English.
Here’s my question: If I cannot get copies of these early papers and translate them, should I include the publications in my citations when I publish my work? Clearly the purpose of a literature review is to cite previous work. But I was also told that you shouldn’t include publications that you haven’t read and evaluated for yourself.
Thank you for your feedback,
Jay Brown
