The zoom link is: https://bigbend.zoom.us/my/rhondak
Also on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/bbcclibrary/
Researching The Research
Source evaluation in research is not a passive activity. It also requires research and critical thinking. This three lens of information evaluation require that you look at research critically - with research.
SUGGESTED RESEARCH FOR ACADEMIC ARTICLES
Google Search - Search for information on authors, researchers and/or organization. Search titles of journals, newspapers, and magazines. Read their about statements and mission. Do you find a scandal, retractions, or fact checks related to the authors, publishers, or title of source?
Look at this Google basic search:
"Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Upregulates BDNF-TrkB Signaling" AND retraction.
Google Scholar - Use a title search to find how many times a scholarly article has been cited. Look at the works that cited your source. Do you see a pattern or anything interesting?
For the retracted article in Google Scholar despite the easy to find retraction it has been cited 20x since 2016.
If we look at all 12 versions of it, we see it lives on Academia.edu. Gale, CUNY's Academic Works, Harvard, and EBSCO. Two of those are library databases. Two of those are well known university's academic repositories.
Google Scholar Metrics . - Use to search the ratings of a scholarly journal. A scholarly article in a journal with higher metrics is considered to have more authority.
PLOS ONE statistics and details on Google Metrics.
Retraction Watch. - If research or a scholarly article has been found to be wrong, that information is not found in the article you may have found. Check the title, author(s), and title of scholarly article in this database to see if the paper was retracted. Search their database here.
How to use the Retraction Watch database to search titles and also authors:
Paperity - Useful for finding news, reviews, letters to the editor, and other information about author(s), journals, organizations, and articles.
Semantic Scholar.- This is an AI powered research tool for scientific literature. It has a more detailed citation analysis than Google Scholar. It shows hidden connections between research.
NON-ACADEMIC SOURCES
Does the article cite information from other sources? If so, look them up using Google.
Search for article, author, and title if available.
Check the context of the information when you find it.
Does that author cite other information? Review links or search for that information.
Find where the original information exists. Sometimes information and facts may shift when handled by multiple entities.
Read laterally, that is, search for other sources of the same information. Look for higher quality platforms and outlets.
This fast practical Buzzfeed fact checker video shows some of these methods.
Media Bias Check Sources. - This is an article describing different ways to find bias in newspapers, magazine articles, and other platforms.
Search Politifact, home of the Truth-O-Meter.
Look at Snopes. In their 20 years, they have become a well regarded go to source for all types of internet truths and untruths. They also show their work.
Factcheck.org works on statements make in the political sphere. One of their main ways of tracking down information besides transcripts and videos is to contact people. They rely on primary sources.
RAND has a detailed list of fact verifications including video tools.
UNGoogle
The zoom link is: https://bigbend.zoom.us/my/rhondak
Also on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/bbcclibrary/
QUESTIONS
"artificial intelligence" art ethics
Best roads between yellow springs OH and Wilmington De
Which countries are facing the greatest famine
Wikipedia
List of search engines, their specialty, languages used, and provenance.
Wikipedia
Comparison of Search engines using tables using independent crawlers, owner, questions, digital rights, privacy. tracking, surveillance and more.
THE THREE BIGS
Google
83% more people use Google than any other search engine.
Bing
Microsoft affiliated. Has natural language ability. More visual.
DuckDuckGo
Touts privacy.
The 8 Best Search Engines of 2024: While you could use Google to find other search engines, here are the ones we think are arguably better
A well organized comparison article with excellent highlights.
Privacy oriented i Alternatives
DuckDuckGo
Startpage - It provides Google search results without tracking, combining Google's search power with enhanced privacy. /Netherlands
Brave Search - privacy and speed. Has it's own index. It isn't impacted by search history.
Qwant - France. Uses Bing to deliver results but uses its own independent systems. Close partner of Microsoft and has Bin adds. “the search engine that doesn't know anything about you.”
SwissCows - Anonymous search engine that is family friendly. Switzerland. “technology is built in such a way that the storage of user data is not even possible.” However, it has Microsoft ads embedded in search results.
Charity Project This is the number of your SwissCows searches. On average, 50 search queries finance a children's meal.
Giburu - does not track IP addresses, record searches or place cookies for advertisers. Delivers search results that doesn't always show on Google.
Eco-Friendly and Socially Responsible Options
Ecosia - plants TREES!
Yep - gives 90% of ad revenue to content creators.
International Search Engines
Yandex
Baidu
Niche Search Engines: Specialized Tools for Specific Needs
CC Search
Boardreader
WolframAlpha
Metasearch Engines: Aggregating Results from Multiple Sources
Dogpiel
Startpage
SearX
AI Based Search Engine
You.com - has AI assistant. Does have a private mode and personal. Relies on Bing, Imagine for AI image generation, and YouWrite text generation.
Perplexity.ai - Just doesn't list web page and cites sources. It has a smart assistant named Copilot. Natural language ability
Komo - speed and privacy, interactive with follow up question (though...don't they all?) Google Search Generative Experience (SGE). (not rolled out yet in the Labs part of Google) SGE is available visible on mobile
Notes in progress
SearX: This one's unique from the previous two, in that it's actually a "meta-search" engine that combines/ amalgamates the results of Google and Bing's web crawlers, then re-prioritizes them accordingly.
Brave: Kind of an outlier here, Bing is a relative newcomer to the scene, being only a few years old. They have both a browser and a search engine. What separates them from the competition, is apparently they're crafting their own independent web results/ crawler, completely separate from Google or Bing. Not sure if they've fully accomplished this by now. They and Duckduckgo are the names I hear come up the most when jt comes to un-censored search results and privacy/ tracking-free.
Like Brave?
MOJEEK?
How to keep up?
Teachcrunch.com
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