<p>As @whuber <a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5153/is-it-on-topic-to-ask-a-question-looking-for-authoritative-canonical-references#comment15249_5153">hints</a>, there is no problem with this.  Note that we even have a <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/references" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;references&#39;" rel="tag">references</a> tag.  One thing to bear in mind is that such questions often elicit a 'big list' of possible answers, and although you are right that there can be real canonical treatments, it can still be the case that there isn't a single response that is <em>the right</em> response or <em>more right than all others</em> by definition.  As a result, questions like that sometimes become CW.  If you were only after reputation, that would be a disincentive, but the information will be just as good, so I encourage you to ask away, if you have a good question and it hasn't been covered on the site before.  </p>
