Wednesday, 9 December 2015

publications - How can I tell if a paper is too old to be a reference for my research?


Current scientific databases hold papers that were published over the past few decades (I haven't checked what is the oldest paper available, but I remember seeing papers from the 1960s, there might even be older papers than that which are cataloged in current databases - not talking about the principia...). One can come upon such old papers either when searching through a database or as a reference in a more recent paper.


My question is: how can I tell if a paper is too old such that I had better not rely on its findings while performing a more contemporary research?


(It probably differs between disciplines, so I'm looking for some general advice.)




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