I am amazed that Coase's most famous work is typically cited wrong. I believe the error stems from an old bluebook cite that simply has been overlooked.
Typically, this article gets cited as R.H. Coase, The Nature of the Firm, 4 Economica N.S. 386 (1937) (or (n.s. 1937) or (economica, n.s.). The n.s., however, is NOT the title of the journal, but rather it is stands for the "new series" of Economica that started around 1936 or 1937. As such, T.13 recommends that the n.s. be so designated. According to the third example in the most recent (18th) edition of the Bluebook (p.349), the correct cite for this article should be:
R.H. Coase, The Nature of the Firm, 4 Economica (n.s.) 386 (1937). (obviously with correct italics and small caps). Note that the (n.s.) is NOT in small caps.
So editors, if you drop off the parentheses or lump the n.s. in small caps along with the journal title, you are wrong. Let's try be a little more consistent.
My previous Bluebook entry, on citing Wikipedia entries (which should be used as a last resort by the way since it is just an encyclopedia after all) can be found here. As I continue my edits on this current article, I will see if any other common thing wrong with the bluebook jumps out at me.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bluebooking R.H. Coase Nature of the Firm
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