>From farishg Fri Feb 21 18:08:34 0700 1997 remote from cc4.adams.edu
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 18:08:34 -0700 (MST)
From: Guy Farish <farishg at cc4.adams.edu>
To: plant-ed at net.bio.net
Subject: www use
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Plant-edders,
No Ross, I'm not against use of the www, nor use of the information in
various pages in student reports or other types of work. I just think
it's premature to cite them as if they were refereed sources. I don't
bother to check most citations, unless they come from a journal with a
very unfamiliar title, or the author of the paper makes some statement
that I find hard to believe. Then I try to check to see if the student
has misinterpreted the source or taken something out of context so that I
can help them become better critical readers of the literature.
The case of the missing web page was from a student who had some pretty
grand ideas and little concept of the difference between data and
speculation. He cited some hard copy sources and what appeared to be
reputable web pages, and some with pretty off the wall names. A couple of
these pages were really trash and some were no longer available. The
problem is that students tend to lack the experience and sophistication
to distinguish between legitimate sources and slick presentations of
junk. I agree, they need to learn how to do this, but the web has the
same fascination to them as TV, if it's there, it must be true.
I think we need to explain to them the power and potential of the web,
and also the pitfalls as others have said. Until there is a method in
place to referee web page publications, I think the citations should take
into account the ephemeral nature and they should be treated like
personal communications or something similar. Our students today are the
researchers of tomorrow, and as someone else pointed out the journals are
not yet accepting URL's as citations. Why should we be any different?
Just my humble opinion.
Guy Farish
Biology Department
Adams State College
Alamosa, CO 81102
(719) 587-7969 FAX (719) 587-7242
