....
Now issue XYZ is an entirely different issue.
Your addressing this different issue is tangential and distracting from your
main point, and addressing it in this fashion (in a cursory footnote) will only
buy you immense bad will—among those who disagree with your conclusion. Issue
XYZ is an interesting and important point, and it is entitled to full-length
development, if not an entire free-standing paper. ABC and DEF wrote such
papers, albeit I disagree with their conclusions. By burying such an issue in a
mere footnote, it will appear to (some) readers that you are sticking a finger
in their eye by indicating that an important point about which they have
thought long and hard is one which you can casually write off in a footnote,
OR, they will think you just don’t understand the importance or complexity of
the issue and that’s why you can dispose of it in a mere footnote. I speak from
experience here: having caused myself needless aggravation in the past by
writing just such (lengthy) footnotes in my own publications.
Seth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SethBTillman ( @SethBTillman )
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