What are web references worth?
by Boyce, G.
The July/August 2007 issue of ACCN illustrates a disturbing (at
least to me) trend towards possible, indeed likely, mis-information.
ACCN is not the only well-respected publication to be "guilty"
of this trend.
I refer to the articles that quote references such as Web sites and
services such as Wikipedia. My understanding is that such references are
not (peer) reviewed in the traditional scientific sense. Indeed the
contents of such sites are owner-or user-driven. I have come across
several items in Internet-based reference services that are either
incorrect or, at best, half-truths. Indeed there is an abundance of
mis-information on the Internet placed there by self-serving individuals
and organizations.
As a judge at this year's National Science Fair in Truro, NS,
I viewed several projects that were based on an Internet reference or
two. Some of these references caused students to take their projects in
inappropriate directions.
Respected publications must shun such a trend or, eventually, it
will be possible to write a scientific paper, supported and accepted,
based entirely on Internet references having little or no foundation.
G. Boyce, MCIC
COPYRIGHT 2007 Chemical Institute of
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Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
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