Open web sources can be searched, typically using search engines such as Google, and are available on the internet without requiring authentication (such as user name & password, or a payment being made).
Because anyone can publish anything online, taking extra time to evaluate these resources is very important during your research process. Use your critical skills and tools like the CRAAP test to ensure that the sources you are incorporating are reliable, current, relevant, and trustworthy.
Experts often consider it the best search engine, but be cautious of its blind spots and missing content due to results that favor advertisers and the exclusion of older websites for efficiency. While not using Google might cause you to miss some information, relying solely on Google means you’ll miss even more.
Microsoft's search engine and best runner-up to Google, Bing offers different search functionality and its own special sauce for relevance ranking results. Additionally, now it offers Copilot, a conversational AI search companion.
Some of the search results are available in full-text but many display only links to pay-for-document delivery services. In many cases you may have access to the complete documents through the CSM library. When using Google Scholar on your own computer, make sure that "Library Links" in Scholar Preferences are set to "College of San Mateo - Full-Text @ CSM". Remember that you have more limiting options (date, source) in the Google Scholar "Advanced Search" option.
WorldCat.org is a resource that connects thousands of libraries’ collections in one place, making it possible to locate resources in libraries nearby. Users can find physical items like books, audiobooks, maps, musical scores, and recordings, along with electronic items like ebooks, e-journals, articles, and digital images, in more than 500 languages from all over the world.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. They do not take policy positions.
The home of the U.S. Government’s open data.
Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
Public Library of Science (PLOS) "believes that scientific ideas and discoveries are a public good. Their benefit will only be fully realized when scientists have effective means to rapidly communicate ideas, results and discoveries to each other and to the broader public."
Wikipedia is not a reliable source for academic writing or research. Wikipedia is increasingly used by people in the academic community, from first-year students to distinguished professors, as an easily accessible tertiary source for information about anything and everything and as a quick "ready reference", to get a sense of a concept or idea. However, citation of Wikipedia in research papers may be considered unacceptable because Wikipedia is not a reliable source.
Many colleges and universities, as well as public and private secondary schools, have policies that prohibit students from using Wikipedia as their source for doing research papers, essays, or equivalent assignments. This is because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any moment. When an error is recognized it is usually fixed.
Follow two simple rules:
Do your research properly and wisely. Remember that any encyclopedia is a starting point for research, not an ending point.
Use your judgment. Remember that all sources have to be evaluated.
ChatGPT is an AI language model created by OpenAI, designed to generate human-like text based on the prompts it receives. It operates by leveraging extensive training on a diverse range of internet text, which helps it understand language patterns, grammar, and various topics. When you input a prompt, the model processes it to grasp the context and intent behind your words. It then generates a response by predicting what text should logically follow, considering various possibilities and selecting the most appropriate one. OpenAI also fine-tunes the model using user interactions and feedback to enhance its performance, ensuring that it provides helpful, relevant, and safe responses. This combination of training and continuous improvement allows ChatGPT to assist with a wide array of inquiries, from casual conversation to more complex questions.
When ChatGPT provides an answer to a question, it will not immediately provide a reference for where the information came from. This is because it is pulling predictive language from a wide variety of places, so the information usually doesn't come from a single source. Because of this, you typically cannot trace the response back to a single parent source or know where the information came from.
Can ChatGPT provide references?
Yes, when prompted, ChatGPT can provide references. However, these references may not be where the information actually came from and - more importantly - may not be for real sources. Despite sounding plausible, ChatGPT can easily hallucinate citations (PDF).
