Common Knowledge

Sometimes, you might feel that you are referencing too much, and that all those references are in fact just common knowledge. This might be true, but is a tricky topic. Because what is common for you, might be the opposite for someone else.

Here is what the MIT Handbook of Academic Integrity  says about the topic:

“Broadly speaking, common knowledge refers to information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without having to look it up. This includes:

• Information that most people know, such as that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or that Barack Obama was the first American of mixed race to be elected president.
• Information shared by a cultural or national group, such as the names of famous heroes or events in the nation’s history that are remembered and celebrated.
• Knowledge shared by members of a certain field, such as the fact that the necessary condition for diffraction of radiation of wavelength from a crystalline solid is given by Bragg’s law.
• However, what may be common knowledge in one culture, nation, academic discipline or peer group may not be common knowledge in another.”