Right off the gate, while we do have libraries where i live, they are mostly outdated or don’t have books on controversial topics, So how does anyone find reliable information when so much of the internet is slop 🤢 and search engines only give the same top 5 "How to stuff 🤑 " websites.

I have been listening to a couple of podcasts 📻 about debunking popular pop culture misinformed science 🧑‍🔬 claims(Your wrong about, Maintenance phase, If books could kill) and that got me interested in trying to research my own topics. But where does one start. I understand that there is no universal solution 🧪 , really what it takes, is alot of googling and going beyond the results first page but maybe there are some good sources?

Sharing some of what i found useful here:

  • While libraries in my area are not really an option, looking up books online is a good start. I use goodreads to look up different topics and see what the reviews are saying about the quality and reliability of the book. Its also worth fact the citations of books.

  • Turns out google is very good with finding pdfs 📄 , so add type:pdf to whatever your searching. you can also add site:.gov 🏢 to search only gov websites ,or site:.ca 🇨🇦 to search websites that label themself Canada in the URL, for example.

  • Use before:, A lot people suggest that you use before:2023 to filter out most AI Slop, date before chatgpt came out, but also i have found interesting stuff when going back further like before:2015.

  • I have tried alot of different search engines and they all just serve google results. the one good one is Marginalia . Its not really reliable like say, google in certain cases is, but alot of the time will serve me new sources, its focus is on non-commercial websites

  • The last one is kinda of mixed bag(and Meta). When you ask people online for suggestions for something, like say some podcasts recommendations, they tend to give you the same five podcasts. Sometimes its something totally different but its a hit or miss most of the time.

P.S: I discovered emoji markdown just now but its kinda of lacking a bit. Still cool though,

  • snoons@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    For me it all has to do with the search terms, and maybe that I use duck duck go.

    Like, if you want to know something use words that would be in the peer reviewed paper about that topic. “Long term consequences of glyphosate use in soil biomes” not “Is glyphosate bad for forests”

    Hmm but also most of the papers I find are on science direct (a website), and if it’s pay walled I then go on to sci-hub and see if it’s on there. If I reeeeeeaaalllyyyy want to read it I email the authors directly, and usually they find time to get back to me between begging for grant money and doing actual science stuff.