Terry: >So, . . . should the PhD candidate be advised to reference differently to what they would do in a research paper. . . ??
Good question Terry, I think the two are different for the reasons you have given although I feel that too many research papers tend to a cursory approach to citations when it's often good to provide some context or reasoning. EG rather than saying "croissants are more satisfying on a Sunday morning (Love 2011)" one might say "from a three-year observation of coffee-shop behaviour by his friends and family, Love (2011), a widely respected expert on ethnographic methods, concluded that they expressed the greatest satisfaction with their croissants on Sunday mornings"
However papers also have a tight word count so sometimes we all cut corners.
But with a thesis I think it's absolutely vital to show that kind of reasoning for all your citations and by explaining context and methods for the knowledge you are recycling you are showing your scholarship in action. It also ensures that students do not just accept journal and conference refereeing at face value and begin to see how standards can vary or be driven by particular concerns that are not relevant to your own work.
In fact you might need to explain more about the methods of this epic study and why you have chosen to rely on it, in preference to Friedman (2009) who considered a broad range of bakery goods, reviewing only his personal consumption over a week spent in the French alps. Especially if you knew from his other works that Friedman's preference for abstinence on Sundays related to his biblical scholarship.
Best wishes from SheffieldChris
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