Transcript Evaluating information you find on the internet

Evaluating information you
find on the internet
Choose your own
adventure !
You are doing an essay on ‘global warming’ and
have found these 3 items – which one would you
look at first?
1) GlobalWarming.org This page created by
www.globalwarming.org gives bi-weekly updates from
Washington on global warming. www.globalwarming.org/ 75k - 25 Jul 2006
2) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Established by the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme...
www.ipcc.ch/ - 38k - 25 Jul 2006
3) SpringerLink - Article Timothy M. Lenton (2006) Climate
Change to the End of the Millennium. Climatic Change
Anthropogenic climate change will continue long after ...
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-005-9022-1 12k – 25 Jul
2006
As anybody can write a web-site you need to find
out a bit more about who published this
information (and why!)
You can find out more about a site by:
1) Investigating the web address to find out who
registered the site and owns the ‘domain’
2) Looking at the pages themselves to find out
who wrote the site
3) Checking out who links to a web-site and what
they say about it.
The web address (1)
www.globalwarming.org
This is a nice domain name and the content is about global
warming, but the web address doesn’t give any clues as
to who wrote it.
The .org means it is a non-profit organisation (whereas
.gov signifies an official government site and .ac or .edu
are educational sites).
The web address (2)
If it is unclear who owns a domain you can use the
www.checkdomain.com site to see who registered the
site:
This gives us – Registrant name: National Consumer
Coalition and contact details for them
Web address (3)
A quick search on Google finds that: “The National
Consumer Coalition is a group of industry friendly
organizations that oppose government regulation and
support "free market" solutions to consumer issues.”
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – I need to find out more
Who wrote it? (1)
If you look in more detail at the site in the ‘About us’
section you will find it clearly states:
“This web site is a project of the Cooler Heads Coalition,
a sub-group of the National Consumer Coalition… The
Cooler Heads Coalition formed May 6, 1997 to dispel the
myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic,
scientific, and risk analysis.”
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – I need to find out more
Links to
A useful way to find out more about a site is, is to check
who links to it and what they say about it. You can do this
on Google using the prefix link: - type this in:
Link to: www.globalwarming.org
Links to (2)
This is a pretty popular site with over 9000
sites linking to it. The first few are links to
itself from different pages, but then there
are links such as:
• Global warming - SourceWatch
• Green Facts
• Eco-Imperialism
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – I need to find out more
The end
You need to treat the information on this site with great
caution – it is from a biased organisation who openly
declare their aim to “dispel the myths about global
warming” Although popular, some sites that link to it do
highlight its bias nature.
Whilst some of their information might be interesting and
could be included in an essay, you need to be aware that
it will be biased and treat it as that.
START AGAIN
The end
You’re right to be cautious – this site is from a biased
organisation who openly declare their aim to “dispel the
myths about global warming”. Although popular some
sites that link to it do highlight its bias nature
Whilst some of their information might be interesting and
could be included in an essay, you need to be aware that
it will be biased and treat it as that.
START AGAIN
The end
You’re probably right to reject this site as it is from a
biased organisation who openly declare their aim to
“dispel the myths about global warming”.
Although some of their information might be interesting
you need to ensure you have a balanced view and
authoritative research-based information in your essay.
START AGAIN
As anybody can write a web-site you need
to find out a bit more about who published
this information (and why!)
1) Investigate the web address to find out
who registered the site and owns the
‘domain’
2) Look at the pages themselves to find out
who wrote the site
3) Look at the information on the site to
check for quality
The web address (1)
The domain name www.ipcc.ch indicates that this is the
web-site of the IPCC organisation.
The .org means it is a non-profit organisation (whereas
.gov signifies an official government site and .ac or .edu
are educational sites).
The .ch signifies the country it is based
though – surprisingly meaning Switzerland
[more on domain names ]
Web address (2)
Although it seems clear that the IPCC owns the web-site,
you can use the www.checkdomain.com site to doublecheck. This tells us that the site was registered by the
IPPC - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
It is worth checking as there have been a number of
famous cases of people registering domain names to try
and represent an organisation / person
e.g. look at www.whitehouse.org –
at first sight this page looks fine, but
check who registered this site!
Web address (3)
A search on Google finds that the IPCC:
“ has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess
scientific, technical and socio- economic information
relevant for the understanding of climate change, its
potential impacts and options for adaptation and
mitigation. It is open to all Members of the UN and of
WMO.”
[WMO = World Meteorological Organisation]
[UNEP = United Nations Environment Programme]
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – find out more
Who Wrote it?
The site itself clearly acknowledges the authorship of the
site:
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) has been established by WMO and UNEP to
assess scientific, technical and socio- economic
information relevant for the understanding of climate
change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation
and mitigation.”
[WMO = World Meteorological Organisation]
[UNEP = United Nations Environment Programme]
Web-site ‘quality’
Just because a web-site is from a reputable source,
doesn’t mean all the information on it should be
accepted unquestioningly. Ask the following questions:
1)
Has the report / information been properly researched,
or is it opinion? Are there references?
2)
Who are the individual report / page authors? Are they
from academia / an official organisation? (Search for
them on Google to find out more about them if you are
unsure)
Web-site Quality (2)
In the case of the www.ipcc.ch site
have a look at the Climate Change report 2001.
1) This looks very well researched. There are figures and
tables, and references for each section.
2) It has been written by an extensive panel of international
experts, all of whom are listed.
The only question remaining is whether a 2001 report is
current enough?
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – I need to find out more
The end
Yes, this looks like a useful site:
- It is written by an official international organisation
- The content is well-researched and of high quality
- There is a lot of current information, older reports from
2001 are very relevant but you will probably need to
supplement this with more up-to-date information.
START AGAIN
The end
You are probably too hasty – this looks like a useful site:
- It is written by an official international organisation
- The content is well-researched and of high quality
- There is a lot of current information, older reports from
2001 are very relevant but you will probably need to
supplement this with more up-to-date information.
START AGAIN
The end
Having investigated this site, it looks like it may be very
useful :
- It is written by an official international organisation
- The content is well-researched and of high quality
- There is a lot of current information, older reports from
2001 are very relevant but you will probably need to
supplement this with more up-to-date information.
START AGAIN
SpringerLink - Article Timothy M. Lenton (2006) Climate
Change to the End of the Millennium. Climatic Change
Just because it’s a journal article doesn’t mean you
don’t need to check this out further! Just as with websites you need to check the authority (is it published
by somebody reputable) and the quality...
1) Find out about the journal – is it a quality publication?
2) Look at the article itself. Is it well-researched? Are
there references?
Springerlink article
This article is from Springer – a well
known publisher. Click the ‘publication’
link and then the ‘about this journal’ link
to find out more – this is:
“An Interdisciplinary, International
Journal Devoted to the Description,
Causes and Implications of Climatic
Change”
Also note that there is an ‘editorial board’ – articles
are reviewed by the editorial board before
publication.
If you return to the article itself you will see that it
was:
– Received: 29 November 2004
– Revised: 25 September 2005
– Accepted: 23 October 2005
– Published online: 20 May 2006
This process of review by fellow experts (the
editorial board) is called Peer Review and is
used in academia to ensure the quality of an
article
Springerlink article
You will also see that the journal information page lists a
range of places in which the journal is ‘Abstracted /
indexes in’ – these are tools for finding articles on a
subject and again a sign that this is a high level query.
[see elibrary for a list of electronic indexes available at Birmingham]
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – any alternatives?
Not too sure about this – find out more
Quality – SpringerLink article
Look at the article itself.
• Note the abstract (summary) and list of
references.
• This is ‘an editorial review essay’ – not original
research but a review of the literature and
current thinking.
• The author, Timothy Lenton, is from the
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research,
UK
Yes I will use - this looks like a good resource
Sounds a bit dubious – go back to find another resource
Not too sure about this – find out more
Is that your final choice?
A friend has been researching too and
brings in an article written by Bill
McGuire (a professor) called:
Climate change: Tearing the Earth
apart? New Scientist
Would you prefer this to the
Springerlink article?
Take the Springer article
Take the New Scientist article
Find out more
New Scientist Article
If you are on campus – click
‘institutional IP’ to view the full-text.
The New Scientist is a well known
publication and the article is very
clear and understandable; moreover,
Bill MacGuire is a professor of
geological hazards at University
College London.
New Scientist article
Although the article is quick and
easy to read and the written by an
authority in the field, the New
Scientist is not a peer-reviewed
journal. Nobody has reviewed this
article before it has been published
and note that there are no
references – the article is opinion
rather than research-based.
The end
This is a good article – you are right to choose this:
- It is from a peer-reviewed authoritative journal
- It is current
- It is on topic and has been researched thoroughly
START AGAIN
The end
You are right to be cautious – articles like these are easy
to read and can be a useful starting point, raising some
interesting ideas.
You shouldn’t, however, rely solely on this type of article
– ensure you use peer-reviewed articles and
authoritative web-sites too.
START AGAIN
The end
Articles like these are easy to read and can be a useful
starting point, raising some interesting ideas.
You shouldn’t, however, rely solely on this type of article
– ensure you use peer-reviewed articles and
authoritative web-sites too.
START AGAIN