Research and Reference Handbooks in Mexico: The Issue of the Latin or Hispanic Traditional System

Abstract

In order to underscore the relevance of the systematic referencing in academia, this work analyzes various bibliographic and research handbooks that have contributed to training researchers in Mexico since the second half of the 20th century, and that remain in use. It focuses on those written by Bosch; De la Torre Villar and Ramiro Navarro; Galindo, Galindo and Torres-Michúa; López Valdés, and the recent handbook by Esquivel Carreón, Rodas Rivera and Salazar Quintana, published at UACJ. The first four describe, sometimes without naming it, the Latin or Hispanic reference system. We examine the reference guidelines they present in the light of Lobato Domínguez’s criteria to evaluate systematization. Most of these handbooks share two confusing features: they do not name the reference system they present, nor they refer to any existing reference handbook or style. Furthermore, they are not critical of the guidelines they include, as they implicitly present theirs as the only existing reference system in academia. This creates the false idea that there is a traditional Latin or Hispanic system that is guided only by convention and not by precise guidelines. However, this work shows that the aforementioned handbooks guidelines resemble the ISO 690 reference standards.