At the beginning of Babbie's text he talks about how generally research articles are anti-climatic on purpose. He's right, I generally find research articles to be anti-climatic and boring. I sometimes wish they did purposely leave the best for last in order to have a climatic ending (though I suppose that defeats the purpose of communicating everything clearly so that others can read and understand the text). Even if the subject matter is interesting I have never been a fan of journal articles; however, as a student I have had to read and analyze many research many research articles. And although it may not be very entertaining at first, I do enjoy being able to read and understand how the research was conducted and be able to find out for myself that it is a sound research project and that the findings are statistically sound.
As I was reading I couldn't help but think about how much the internet has changed research. Before the internet was so popular most research findings were in printed journals and it took a long time to find and sift through thousands of articles. However, thanks to modern technology we can have thousands of articles at our finger tips (assuming you don't use an engine that only allows you to look at half the article and expects you to pay for the rest...). Now the fact that it is easier to find journals quickly is great; however, as the author stated it is important to make sure it comes from a reputable source. As a public health student I personally like using pubmed and biomed search engines. They are very useful, easy to manage and free. As I have been trying to do the initial research for my topic it has been a bit difficult to find exactly what I need. I can find many topics on HIV in India, however, I am trying to limit my initial research to southern India.
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