Welcome to the course guide for PHIL 2600: Ethics in Science! The purpose of this guide is to help you select credible sources for your research paper.
I'm the subject librarian for all sciences, including environmental sciences, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have while working on your paper. The easiest way to contact me is at erin.otoole@unt.edu. Good luck with your searching!
Whether or not a source is reliable depends on the context of your research. In some instances, you may not be able to find traditional peer-reviewed literature for topics such as:
In that case, you will have to do your best to determine whether alternative sources are reputable by evaluating them and using your common sense.
Peer review is the process of having peers in a discipline review a book or article manuscript before it is accepted for publication. Peer reviewers look at whether the correct research method was selected for the problem, the research method was conducted properly, the data is represented without bias, the conclusions follow from the study results, and more. Peer reviewed sources are usually considered the gold standard in academics.
But . . . here a few aspects of peer review to consider:
So it is wise to be aware of other sources and how to evaluate them, otherwise you'll miss out on a lot of information in the world!
This guide will cover how to identify trustworthiness in a variety of sources, but here are some common questions you should ask about all sources.