Student Support
A Guide to Students Writing their Theses - A FAQ (and
not-so-FAQ)
As has been mentioned in the guide
to using the Internet for research purposes, the Internet can contain a high
noise-to-signal ratio.
The enormous success and the freedom of the Web, often
regarded as being one of its major advantages, is actually a major disadvantage
when it comes to finding academic research material on the Web.
The fact that anyone with the access to the technology (and
unfortunately that does not necessarily imply intelligent, nor the incipient
advent of an intellarchy!) can publish whatever they please means that the
average content of the Web is not of an academic quality.
The most important facet of any research is the quality of
the input, or put more prosaically, "garbage in, garbage out".
References and Referees
What constitutes academic quality? The first requirement is
that information is not presented in a vacuum, but builds on the information and
ideas of others. This intellectual debt is acknowledged through referencing and
crediting the originators of that information and those ideas.
Thus, an important difference between articles in (say) the
Financial Mail, and (say) the Quarterly Journal of Economics is that the source
of all information contained in the article in the QJE is acknowledged, allowing
subsequent researchers to go back and verify the information themselves, whereas
this is not the case with the Financial Mail.
However, referencing of material is a necessary (and,
arguably, the most important) it is not sufficient condition for information to
be regarded as being of academic standards.
A second requirement is that of peer review. The process of
peer review is designed to maintain quality - authors submit material to an
editorial board constituted of experts in the particular field, and this board
then makes a decision as to whether the material is acceptable or not, with or
without revision. All the major journals (a large number of which can be found
on-line) are "refereed" in this way.
By contrast, popular publications and newspapers rely
(amongst others) on the laws of libel and slander to ensure that what is
published is not factually incorrect.
The absence of referencing makes it harder for others to
validate the information presented. Peer-reviewed journals insist on material
being referenced.
While searching the Internet for information, the extent to
which material is referenced and peer-reviewed should be a major criterion for
ascertaining the value and reliability of the information found.
Academic standards on the Web
In the light of the above, one can see that much of the
information on the Web does not in fact meet academic requirements. Much of the
information presented is as academically valid as the contents of the Southern
Suburbs Tatler, or the Financial Mail.
However, there is a further problem with some information
put out on the Web. Many academic or state institutions publish material on the
Web which is a synthesis of academic-quality research produced by that
organisation. However, in order to make the information more accessible to the
vast majority of Web users, the content is often 'dumbed down' or summarised
into the equivalent of a World Book entry.
Thus, for example, CancerNet, one of the most comprehensive
sources of information on Cancer and related issues on the Internet, provides
large amounts of "results" - data on new and promising treatments, for
example, but does not reveal where those "results" came from.
Clearly, the information provided by the site is
"valuable", and might even have a place in a thesis - but the
information provided does not help the researcher any further than the actual
information presented.
The Internet can, then, be a source of information for a
thesis. More often, however, it will provide a point of first reference - a
starting point to find out what is known about a particular subject.
Examples of electronic journals (or electronic copies of
dead-tree journals) are:
Summary
In general, material "culled" from the Web should
be used with a degree of circumspection. The same principles should guide the
use of the Internet for research purposes as the principles surrounding the use
of dead-tree information.
All of this, however, is not to entirely discount the use of
the Internet in the preparation of your dissertation. One of the key
determinants of the grade you will be given for your dissertation is the degree
of discrimination (and therefore thought) you have applied to your sources.
Bearing the above points in mind, you are likely to stay well clear of the
pitfalls.
Good Luck!
Appendix: Referencing material
The system that should be used is the APA system - one of
many in use world-wide, but probably more frequently used in academic
environments than any other.
The APA system references the work in two places - in the
text (not as a footnote), and then in an alphabetically
arranged bibliography. This method is very similar to the Harvard system.
The reference in the text is simple. If the quote is a
direct one, the author, year of publication and page reference should be given.
Wortham (1986, p.417) proposes seven criteria for assessing rating factors in
order to decide whether and how their use should be regulated.
Or, where the quote is indirect, the author and year of
publication must be given.
For example, the Institute of Actuaries of Australia (1994) has stated that
where chosen risk classification factors have been found to be no longer
significant or to be socially unacceptable, they have been removed.
When writing up the bibliography, different sources of
information must be referenced in different ways.
- Books
Author (Year). Title. Publisher. Place published.
Example
Benjamin B and Pollard JH (1980). The Analysis of Mortality and other
Actuarial Statistics. Heinemann. London.
- Articles in Books
Author (Year). Title of article. In: Editor's name (ed), Book Title.
Publisher. Place published.
Example
McNamara R (1982). Infant and Child Mortality. In: Ross JA (ed), International
Encyclopaedia of Population. The Free Press. New York.
- Journal Articles
Author (Year). Title of Article. Journal name. Volume,
edition: start page - end page.
Example
Dorrington RE, Martens E and Slawski J (1991). African Mortality in South
Africa - Assured Lives, Members of Group Schemes, and the Population as a
Whole. Transactions of the Actuarial Society of South Africa. IX,I:268-288.
- Unpublished Papers
Author (Year). Title of Paper. Form of paper. Place published or submitted.
Example
Moultrie T (1992). Assumptions made in the valuation of human life :
concepts and criticisms. BBusSc thesis. University of Cape Town.
Or
Cameron E (1994). Underwriting as discriminatory practice. Paper to the Life
Offices' Association Underwriting Forum. Midrand.
The following URLs may be of use in finding out more on this
topic.
In terms of referencing material from electronic sources in
accordance with the Harvard/APA system, the following may prove invaluable:
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly - either the information
presented in a footnote warrants inclusion in the main text (in which case it
should be there) - or it does not (in which case the question should be asked:
should the information be presented at all).
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