Know Your Netiquette, Research Paper Example

Web pages and search engines such as Google sift through available information throughout the world wide web. Search engines locate information that can be viewed and read by anyone who has access to the internet. As such, the internet–which is free and available to all–can be the optimal and preferred place for nurses and other members within the medical field to look for information and conduct research. Non-profit organizations, medical institutions, universities, and governments often put information on their respective websites. While some web pages are created for altruistic purposes and for the purpose of disseminating important information, other web pages, such as those that have a commercial purpose, personal blogs, and discussion groups do not provide peer-reviewed information that are required of sound academic research.  Scholarly databases are much more selective regarding the type of information published. A comparison between scholarly library databases and websites requires one to look at authority, relevance, access to published studies and information, and search features.

Many researchers and students are compelled to look for information in websites because of how much information is available for free. The Web lacks strict authority because there is no filter that ensures that only scholarly and professional literature is disseminated. The lack of regulation of web information often puts the authority of such information in doubt. The Web gets millions of hits on a quotidian basis, and a lot of the information is duplicated, regurgitated, and repackaged because there are no filters that erase duplicate data. In addition, web searches do not require a subject focus, which is why a lot of junk information crops up in the search results. The lack of regulation of web information results in the dissemination of biased and opinionated information, especially if a subject-specific feature was not used. Quality trumps quantity when using the Web for research purposes. Information provided on the web seldom comes from peer-reviewed, legitimate sources unless a user pays for access to such academic printed materials.

Sound academic research often relies on scholarly sources because the veracity and authority of such sources are guaranteed. The majority of databases utilize a peer-reviewed, scholarly filter in order to guarantee their academic currency. Such databases receive hundreds of hits everyday, which vastly contrasts from the millions of hits websites get because the majority of scholarly databases do not provide scholarly literature for free. Moreover, scholarly databases focus on particular subjects such as nursing, geriatric studies, American history, and they also filter out results by format, just as book reviews, periodicals, journals, and books. As a result, more pertinent information is offered, and students and researchers waste less time navigating through junk science and irrelevant searches. Only high-quality, legitimate sources are proffered. Scholarly databases have advanced search features dictated by a certain subject, thereby limiting results by date, publication type, document status, language, and peer-reviewed status. Finally, scholarly databases only provide information that has been published, which means that the resources have been thoroughly vetted because it originally appeared in various printed materials such as books, magazines, and journal articles. As such, they are perceived as more reliable and stable than information found on the Web.

Evaluating web sites requires certain criteria for ascertaining the validity of the information. The intended audience must be taken into account, as some web sites are geared towards a more general audience and laymen while those with more technical language and specialized knowledge are intended for professionals to consume. The authority of the website and the information it provides must also be evaluated. The author of the article should be clearly visible and his or her area of expertise. Perhaps the most important criterion is evaluating whether or not the language, treatment of the subject, and tone are imbued with biases and slants. Objectivity is important in gleaning whether or not a website was designed to sway a user’s opinion or to further an organization’s agenda. Assessing the currency of the website must be done as well by looking at the date of publication and the date the site was last updated. Keeping a topic current enhances the reliability of a website. Finally, considering the scope of a website on a certain topic has implications regarding its academic currency. If the information on a website has appeared in other peer-reviewed, scholarly materials, then the information is more valid.

References

Brusco, J. M. (2011). Know your netiquette. AORN Journal, 94(3). 279–286. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2011.07.003

The web versus library databases–A comparison. (2015). Yale. Retrieved September 2, 2015 from https://www.library.yale.edu/researcheducation/pdfs/Searching_Evaluating_Resources.pdf