Discusses the vital need to carry out adequate referencing when employing staff and the liabilities which can be incurred when giving information regarding previous employees. Discusses the “no comment” attitude which has recently emerged and the lack of statutory duty to provide information on former employees. Points out the need for protection for thsoe companies which respond truthfully to requests for references to avoid the potential for costly lawsuits.
States the importance of referencing and background checks despite the acknowledged difficulties within the procedure. Refers to research showing many employers give minimal information on reference request for fear of incurring legal repercussions. Provides guidelines to the procedure to help the future employer. Considers the need for personal and academic references and credit reports. Gives suggestions for the correct response to the former employer to minimize legal recourse.
This paper attempts to evaluate the literature of the field of history through a multi-decade reference analysis of the American Historical Review. Reference analysis, a subsection of the larger field of bibliometrics, is a method of determining the characteristics of a field or subject by careful examination of the literature of that area. This study will analyze references from one issue of the AHR from the years 1950, 1970, 1990, and 2002 in five areas: total citations, age of the citations, language of the citations, format of the citations (e.g. monograph, journal, etc.), and the number of authors per citation. Hopefully, this analysis will help to define the patterns (if any) that have characterized the field of history through time.
