On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 11:47:48AM +0100, David Gerard wrote:
Which makes some sense - a signed article by an expert
in a field is a
good source, and Knol is a handy place for it.
We need to treat Knol the same as any other self-published,
non-peer-reviewed source. The use of these sources has to be as minimal
as possible, even if the sources are written by experts in the field.
Some of the sources will be fine, but a significant number will be full
of idiosyncratic opinions and interpretations that the experts would
never be able to publish in a respectable journal. Any forum that lacks
editorial review will attract a disproportionate number of fringe views.
I find I am spending more and more time lately explaining the idea of
"due weight" for novel theories without broad support in the research
community.
- Carl