On 20/12/06, Thomas Dalton
<thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The key point here is that your source for the
statement that all the
papers say the same thing isn't just the papers, it's the database. If
there is a way to reliable cite the database, rather than just the
sources it contains (a link to the search results page, perhaps), then
it might be ok, but just citing the papers definately isn't.
A while back I wrote about a self-publicising vanity author. One of
the details I'd liked to have note was the complete (or near-complete)
absence of his books in public library catalogues, but it's almost
impossible to actually find a way to cite a "negative search" much
less a positive result...
In law this ties in closely to the presumption of innocence. The
primary burden of proof falls on the person making the claim, not on the
one denying it. Perhaps we should have a stock of boilerplate phrases
to express negative search results.
Ec