citation policy

I've had proper citation drilled into me since high school. The citation format may change, and sometimes, the details you need to cite may change (whole document? Each individual table?). I always check my own references, and I've often had my references argued over.

So I was highly amused when I ran across this in scientific paper:

"Information sources are not volunteered, but can be selectively furnished on meritorious grounds."

This would not fly in consulting, in grad school, in college...

In case you were wondering if I was researching bomb thermodynamics or Microsoft intellectual property, I was not. As far as I could tell, the author was discussing entirely publicly available government documents.

I really wanted to contact the author, but I'm not sure my reasons would be entirely meritorious.