Is anyone here familiar with the site called Owlcation?

TalkThe Green Dragon

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Is anyone here familiar with the site called Owlcation?

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1Meredy
Sep 16, 2018, 2:32 pm

https://owlcation.com/

"We are a site created by educators and experts on topics related to education—sharing our unique expertise and knowledge about all things academic."

I just stumbled onto it while looking something up. It looks legitimate, but I don't find much mention of it out there other than self-mention. And I don't see anything about peer review. I'm wondering if people who publish there find themselves in good company.

Do you see anything that sets off your alarms or even just awakens your doubts? I'm finding it harder and harder these days to trust that anything is what it looks like.

2Bookmarque
Sep 16, 2018, 2:56 pm

at first glance it looks legit. When I get some time I'll look up something I know a lot about as a test. Maybe give that a try to see what you think.

3reading_fox
Sep 17, 2018, 6:09 pm

They look like personal articles, and it's not clear how much editorial control there's been. Some might be good, but others less so, probably ok for basic facts but could be one sided if there's any controversy, I'd be particularly wary over any health claims.

4hfglen
Sep 18, 2018, 6:41 am

I looked at a couple of botany articles, which seemed to me to be pitched at middle-school level, and be remarkably free of adequate detail. (In other words, I was not impressed, and not convinced that these rose to the ideal of the site quoted in #1 above.) OTOH, I have to bear in mind the wise words of the speaker at the meeting I went to last night -- a retired professor from Uni. Cape Town and Uni. Queensland. He pointed out that only one university in South Africa still has a proper botany department (the others all have schools of biology, one with the unfortunate but possibly accurate acronym of APES) and even there whole-plant studies aren't taught. Certainly I know from my daughter's degree, they teach "tasters" of far too many disparate bits, and students come out with only the vaguest idea of what the subject is about. Allied to this is the sad story of the time the research institute I used to work for had a vacancy for a herbarium technician (most of the job being identifying plants). They arranged a practical test -- half the applicants that made it that far couldn't recognise the plant in the institute's logo! (oh dear) Against that background the site's articles would probably seem informative.