1. I think that one of the three important things I learned today in class was how to utilize another database to help me with future research. I think that Web of Science is a great database to use if I want to find other articles that might pertain to a subject that I am researching in. Another important thing is that this helps narrow down my searches significantly by placing all the articles that have cited the original article which I was looking for. This was a common technique that I used when I had my Social Science Research class and having a database that compiles all the cited works helps even more with my research. The last thing that I learned today is how Google Scholar’s cited list isn’t always completely accurate and this was because I was never exposed to the Web of Science database before so I had no other tool to find other citations with but now that I do, I’ll probably use Google Scholar a lot less.
2. I don’t think there’s anything that I’m really uncertain about when dealing with evaluating sources but I think that sometimes, even if you don’t have a degree in a certain subject area, your thoughts and ideas can be as highly valued as the person who does. Although I do understand that sometimes it’s better to trust sources who do have degrees in the area, I just don’t think they should be valued any less.
Carrie: I agree that you wouldn’t want to write someone off just because they don’t have a degree in the area in which they are writing. I hope I didn’t suggest that in class today. I think that what I was trying to convey was that looking at what sort of educational background a researcher has is one of many things to consider when you are evaluating a source. Other things include what other publications in that area the person has done, how often those other publications are cited and how they have been received by other scholars in the field, where the items were actually published, and, most imporantly, the quality of the writing and argument itself. In some disciplines, you are unlikely to make much of a dent in the field if you haven’t had the appropriate educational background. Imagine trying to publish notable articles in theoretical physics if you don’t have a physics degree, for example.