How Scientific is It? A Checklist
Adapted from U of California, Berkley - Understanding Science
Science is a body of knowledge. But it is also a systematic process of discovering new knowledge. That process involves the following steps:
For non-experts, searching a subject-specific library database can be challenging. Organized around discipline's knowledge, they can be complex and difficult to navigate. Finding relevant information in these databases often requires discipline-specific keywords that accurately describe the subject. Non-experts may struggle to determine appropriate keywords to use and refine their searches. Finally, the way library databases rank the relevance of results is different than Google. It is not always clear why the first result is number one; this can make it difficult to evaluate which sources are relevant to the topic.
For that reason, we'll be taking a two-step approach to identify evidence. First, we will use Google Scholar to find to isolate specific arguments and the language used to express them. Second, we'll search that language in one of the sources linked on the Biology subject guide.