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Evaluation - Reliability - Interpretation - Status.
When the work is complete, the
whole investigation requires evaluation.
Evaluation means looking at the work
as a whole
and seeing if proper scientific conclusions can be made.
The reliability of the
data can be
improved by looking at the results
which other people have published from previous similar
experiments.
You can find this information by doing a literature search
of relevant scientific journals.
A journal is a magazine which is published (usually
monthly)
about a particular area of scientific research.
You might think that all properly
trained scientists
would make the same evaluation of the same piece of work.
In reality different scientists will have a different interpretation
of the same investigation.
The reasons for this include politics, prejudice and bias.
Not all scientists are equally
believed.
Those who are more famous or have a higher professional
status
or more experience will be taken more seriously
and their evaluation will carry more
weight.
For example, more people would listen to the evaluation of
a highly experienced Oxford or Cambridge professor
than an evaluation by a young unknown research student.
Headings How Science
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Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.