Sound, searchable, sites about scientific research.

I have been thinking about writing an article about how to distinguish real science from pseudo-science for a while. As you know there is quite a bit out there that is either tainted by bias, or just plain wacko.

The obvious answer for your general question is to look for professional organizations, e.g. NASA for space and geophysics, the American Physical Society, etc.

If you are looking for the mainstream science answer to any question, you should ask someone trained in science. There are many of us here and we can point you to reliable information for specific questions in most areas.

This is out of my field (I am trained in Physics) but if I wanted sound information about new treatments, I would start looking for Journal articles from a reliable source backed up by research. I might also try a query here, or with people in the medical field I know.

Oooh, pseudo-science!

<shrilly whistles for Thomas>

I'd be interested in your article, ebrown. It's something Thomas and I have talked about a lot.

Meanwhile, Medline is one good source, I think. I agree with the general concept of scientific, peer-reviewed journals, though often you have to pay to see those. What I tend to do is search there, get a title, then search for the title on Google and hope it's free somewhere.

e-brown, that would be a great article. Weve got some guidelines that e employ for students who wish to cite web-site articles for their papers.They are quite simple really

be aware of sites ending in .com

be aware of sites that start by trashing theories and then dont present anything substantive

be aware of any data streams that are not vetted

do a citation index search of the authors of the articles you wish to use

do a citation index on the subject on which youre writing

CHECK THE MATH-(Ive often found entire sections of equations that dont match the papers-indicTING IT WAS A NO BRAIN-LIFT)

Dont embrace science from ANY organization that has a angle( I dont care if its the Sierra club to the Creationists, be aware of "spun" facts) Facts can usually be checked outright by taking quotations in a paper youre reading and plopping them into google.
Our students periodically add stuff of their own and we adopt these as "rules of the webway"

Im amazed at how quickly people just buy-in on much crap thats published on the net. Its like what they used to say about newspapers."well it was in the paper, so its gotta be true"

My advice is to start with journals of the subject of interest, and begin there.. Each of the US National Labs run by DOE have staffers doing research on many subject areas. Each of these labs publish a "Science and Technology" Magazine thats free to the interested. Lawrence Livermore has an especially fine one called .....ready?


"SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY" they get into many subjects of current research. This mag usually follows publication in peer reviewed journals. And Then, their entire process is peer revieqwed by a cross sectional panel of variousscience disciplines , so its been spyglassed to death

<did I hear a whistle here somewhere?>

Generally, peer-reviewed studies, double-blind if applicable, are the most reliable source of information, and searching the Pub Med database is your best shot at finding them. A relatively new search engine is Google Scholar. I'm not sure how good they are at seperating the scientific wheat from the pseudo-scientific chaff, but they might be worth a try.

The problem with primary scientific literature is that it's hard for laypeople to sort through the sometimes contradictory findings in various papers, decide which finding is based on more reliable methodology, and so forth. You may consider an agency that reviews the state of knowledge and publishes in a form friendly to public consumption. When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I found it extremely helpful to search the webpages of the National Institutes of Health. You probably want to try that for your friend's condition first.

Good luck!

http://medlineplus.gov/



Definitely my fav when I'm looking for recent research.

Thank you all.

This http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47788&highlight=

was the progenitor of this very general question, as I was extremely suspicious of the treatment in question, but I was unable to access any specific information about it. (Very possibly because there have BEEN no proper trials.)

However, I then became very interested in finding some good sites.

Actually, ebrown_p, I was especially interested in sites which assist one to distinguish between pseudo and real science, but I neglected to ask for these specifically. Do you have any good online esources for this in mind? I hope that you DO write that article.

Sozobe, you are quite correct. I DO keep findng that I must subscribe to view the high quality articles, and I do not have sufficient funds to do this very often. I very much like your idea of googling for them, once they have been discovered. Thank you.


Farmerman wrote: "be aware of any data streams that are not vetted

do a citation index search of the authors of the articles you wish to use

do a citation index on the subject on which you're writing "

I wonder if you could tell me how I would go about doing these doubtless excellent things?

And more information about how I might access the following resources?

"My advice is to start with journals of the subject of interest, and begin there.. Each of the US National Labs run by DOE have staffers doing research on many subject areas. Each of these labs publish a "Science and Technology" Magazine thats free to the interested. "

Thank you very much for your learned comments.

Thomas, I am indeed, using Google Scholar, and finding some wheat, although I think their database is small so far. Unfortunately, the wheat is generally rather expensive to access. Thank you for your suggestions. They are most gratefully received.

Ms. Beth, I thank you for that resource. I shall investigate it thoroughly.

I am still very much hoping for further good ideas, thank you all.

Prospero. There is a Science Citation Index that is on the web now. Many journals keep a citation index capability in their newest databases so you can cross ref older papers to see where the origins were, and how well rooted they were

As far as the DOE site, I get the print version but they now have an online Science and Tech review. its at http://www.llnl.gov/str

The magazine is a goodie and your tac dollars fund it. Its actually news of research thats mostly been published but, unless you have the journals or "grey lit" reports, you wont find the news quickly.

As far as bad science, there are a few www.badphysics.com, badgeology, badchemistry,etc. There is also a site called "junk science" which is more a site with a political agenda.

Thank you again, Farmerman!

I find myself wondering what the political agendum of the site you mention is?

(Edited to add link to Randi Foundation)

I like three sites for teaching how to tell science from pseudoscience: Skeptic, a monthly magazine that specializes in examining dubious claims. Then there's the Skeptic Dictionary, and the Randi Foundation. All of them convey the spirit of sorting out pseudo science very well.

But if you're looking for a cookie-cutter system of telling one from the other, I have to disappoint you, as I suspect everybody does. If there was such a fixed system, I'm sure the pseudo-scientists would find a way of gaming it. Sniffing out pseudo science is more like an art than like a science.

Good luck!

Thank you again Thomas!

Yes, I suppose I was looking for a one site does all, which is, as you point out, an impossible dream indeed.

One would think I would have grown out of such fantasies!

May I say how amusing I find your signature line to be?