What is scientific information?
To begin with, it is important to understand the difference between everyday information and scientific information. The information used in everyday situations is different from that used in scientific research, and it is sought in slightly different ways. Scientific information seeking aims at finding scientific sources, such as peer-reviewed articles.
So what is scientific information like?
- Questioning and critical.
- Public.
- Systematic.
- The claims are presented on the basis of previous research.
- Information is weighed, corrected and supplemented.
- Scientific research methods are used in the formation of information.
- The aim is to examine previous research results and to position oneself in relation to previous research.
- The contextual meanings and interrelationships of concepts are essential in scientific research.
Of course, everyday discussion can also be critical and aware of the contextual meanings of concepts, but in general, everyday information formation is based on individual observations, one's own experiences and generalisations based on them. The experience of an individual is not scientific information. Experiential knowledge is, for example, if person A, based on his own experiences, thinks that a certain method of upbringing is best.
In everyday and experiential knowledge, it is easy to end up escalating things, creating opposites or presenting something as simpler than it actually is. In everyday life, information is usually searched by googling.
Scientific databases
Scientific databases are the most reliable source of information when you are looking for scientific information. They specialize in organizing, searching and finding information in one or more disciplines. ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is an example of a scientific database which focuses on educational sciences.You can find the databases acquired for use by the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ in JYKDOK.
- On the information seeking page of your discipline , you can see which are the key databases in your field.
- You can also see the database list of your discipline by clicking Browse for databases on JYKDOK's front page > Science.
- If you already know the name of the database you want, search for the database by typing the name of the database in the search field of JYKDOK's basic search.
- Please remember that databases are always accessed through JYKDOK to ensure that they work correctly.
Many discipline-specific databases have their own narrowing options for the needs of the discipline. For example, in the database of educational sciences, search results may be narrowed to a specific level of education.
One publisher usually has many different databases. For example, Ebsco has both multidisciplinary and smaller discipline-specific databases, such as Business Source Elite in business and economics, PsycINFO in psychology, MLA International Bibliography in literature or CINAHL in health sciences.
Please note that JYKDOK is not a scientific database, but our library's collection database, which contains both scientific and non-scientific resources. For example, books are searched from JYKDOK, and in the JYKDOK articles tab, the search results can be limited to scientific (peer-reviewed) articles.
Scientific topics are also written about in popular terms, for example in newspapers, magazines and Wikipedia. In this case, it is not a scientific source. For example, the publication process of an article written for a newspaper is quite different from that of a scientific article, the writing of which requires a scientific publication process. Therefore, even if a journalist has interviewed a researcher, it is not a scientific source.
The practices and research ethics of the scientific community regulate the production of scientific information. The scientific process also sets requirements for information seeking and requires being systematic. You must be familiar with the publishing culture of your own field and know where and how to look for scientific information relevant to your topic. The Library Tutorial gets you acquainted with these issues.
