Secret Citation

More details of one of the games from the Leeds workshop - thanks David Porter and team :-D

Secret Citation *or refin’ hell*

There are a variety of ways in which this card game can be played, including ones based on the card games Happy Families and Go Fish! The following rules describe the basic version of the Referencing Card game derived play wise from the card game Rummy.

The game is probably best played with 2-4 people, although a game involving 6 players is possible. The aim of the game is for a player to complete a reference by obtaining all the required elements for a Book, Journal Article or Webpage. A deck of 52 cards is used, each of these cards either bears an element required to complete a reference or a dummy element.

For a Book the elements required are:

o    Author / Editor name(s)

o    Year the book was published

o    Title of the book

o    Edition (if not the first)

o    Place book was published

o    Publisher's name

For a Journal Article the elements required are:

o    Author / Editor name(s)

o    Year the Journal was published

o    Title of Journal Article

o    Full Title of Journal

o    Volume and issue of Journal

o    Pages on which Article appears in Journal

For an Online Webpage the elements required are:

o    Author / Editor / Source name(s)

o    Year information was created

o    Title of web document / page

o    Uniform Resource Locator

o    Accessed date

Included in the deck are dummy elements cards featuring characteristics which are not included in a reference but are commonly included by mistake.

*In order to ensure each player has a hand of five cards there are some elements which can be merged; such as place of publication and publisher or the page numbers of article, volume and issue of Journal. There are also shared elements which can be used to create parts of virtually any reference; such as the name(s) of an Author / Editor, or Year of Publication. Frequency of cards can be altered depending upon number of player. Dummy Element could be altered to feature more common errors found locally.*

USED FOR	ELEMENT	FREQUENCY
All	Author / Editor(s).	7
All	Year Published.	7
All	Title.	7
Book	Edition.	3
Book	Place of Publication: Publisher.	3
Journal	Title of Journal.	3
Journal	Volume (issue), Pages.	3
Webpage	Available at: <URL>	3
Webpage	Date accessed.	3
Dummy	ISSN.	3
Dummy	ISBN.	3
Dummy	BINDING.	3
Dummy	WEB DESIGNER.	3
Dummy	DDC/SHELFMARK/CALL NUMBER.	3
		54

The game begins with the dealer giving each player a card in turn until everyone has five cards; an additional card is then given to the first person dealt a card. The deck of cards is then placed face down so all players can see. The person who has been dealt an additional card then has to decide which of their cards they wish to discard, which they do by placing it face up so all players can see. If the player does not declare a reference then the next player then has their turn and can either pick up the discarded card or pick one from the top of the deck, again discarding their unwanted card face up on the pile. This routine continues until someone declares they have a reference and presents it to the other players.

In order for a player to win they must firstly collect all the elements required for their chosen medium type and then lay the cards down in the correct order to form a reference. The winning hand must comprise of 3 All cards and 2 medium Specific cards (Book / Journal / Webpage) laid out in the correct order. If any of the other players do not believe it is correct then they can challenge the declaration and if the challenge is correct they may switch one of their own cards for any of the declaring player’s cards. If this results in that player declaring a complete reference otherwise play continues with the player who would have played next. If the declaration is correct then that player wins and play can either commence with the others players continuing or a new game is commenced.

*Option to play with just cards for a single medium and the dummy cards and then add others when players are happier with reference structure*