Forum:"Sources" sections cropping up

I have done it similiar, not sure in wich articles, but I have done it with the same reasons Hurtzbad mentioned. Sources are a list of books and other stuff, wich are normally included in every scientific article (and I thought of an encyclopedia the same as if I am writing a complete article for a written book). It has the purpose to let the reader of the article know where he can find more details about it, more details I used for the article (the reason may be, that I do not have the time or do not want to make it as long as a whole book, etc.). Footnotes are something complete different, they serve to make clear where I got the special detail from. Every source used in the footnotes must be also part of the sources list, but not every book/website/article etc. of the sources section must have shown somewhere in the text as a footnote. The sources are only something to show the reader I the writer read this for this work and it could be interesting for you, if you want to know everything I learned for this special work. But footnotes are only to make sure, where certain ideas I am following, or thinking about for the work, can be found. To make it easier to verify them. But that does not mean, that they include everything you can find about the topic. Normally the footnotes would be on the end of every page in a book, sometimes all footnotes are collected at the end of the book. The sources are a list of literature, it is in most cases the last chapter of a (scientific) book. Historicus 17:35, 27 December 2008 (UTC)