Good point, Lynn...I'm glad you checked out the site and I won't feel bad if
students use it to write papers.
I completely buzzed over the notion of the reference to BITCH...having my own
life drama to deal with at home right now PLUS I'm in the midst of data
analysis...always exciting...LOL! HMMM...yeah, I agree...it is offensive.
Particularly when you can also state someone is my "bitch" if they do my
bidding, just as the research engine is doing the researcher's bidding. In
motorcycling the person who rides "bitch" is usually the woman who sits behind
the rider...so across the board it has a negative connotation, typically
addressed at women. I hope he will think again about using the name...
Thanks for making the effort to check the search engine out!
Robyn
Quoting Lynn Bowes-Sperry <
lbowessp@WNEC.EDU>:
> Hello Martin and all: I also received the email about this search engine. I
> would like to thank Martin for initiating dialogue on this topic, which is
> clearly relevant to GDO (and educators in general). As Martin suggests,
> there are two basic issues here: (1) offensiveness of the name
> "Researchbitch," and (2) potential for this form of research to be perceived
> as cheating.
>
>
>
> With regard to the name "Researchbitch" - Lissack may or may not have
> intended it as a gender slur. Yes, research can "be a bitch" and a female
> dog can be referred to as a "bitch." If he liked the dog theme so much, he
> could have gone with a picture of any of the retriever breeds (e.g. golden)
> and called the site "Research retriever" but from a marketing perspective it
> isn't as edgy. My guess is that this is a marketing ploy. Either way, I
> don't like it. I know the term is viewed as more acceptable now than years
> gone by (primarily due to the entertainment industry). However, it's one
> thing when a rapper uses the term, quite another when someone referring to
> himself as "the Director of the Learner's Library" uses it.
>
>
>
> I decided to check the website out for myself. I submitted information from
> an assignment I give my HR class on job accommodations. The references that
> it provided were decent. I don't consider this cheating as long as the
> students read the articles and not just the abstracts. From what I see, it
> doesn't allow students to do anything different than they can already do
> (it's just more efficient and might give them a little thrill if they think
> they are putting one over on us!). Students using "traditional" search
> engines can already take short cuts writing their papers (by not reading the
> articles, just the abstracts).
>
>
>
> I'd like to hear more thoughts on the topic!
>
>
>
> Take care, Lynn
>
>
>
> Lynn Bowes-Sperry, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of Management
>
> Western New England College, and
>
> 1215 Wilbraham Road
>
> Springfield, MA 01119
>
>
>
> Phone: (413) 782-1254
>
> Fax: (413) 796-2068
>
> Email:
lbowessp@wnec.edu
>
>
>
> _____
>
> From: Gender & Diversity in Organizations Division Listserv
> [mailto:
GDO-L@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Martin B. Kormanik
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 11:17 AM
> To:
GDO-L@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
> Subject: New M Lissack research engine
>
>
>
> Colleagues,
>
> The following arrived in yesterday's email. You may remember Michael
> Lissack, a former (?) Academy member, from the 2002 incident when he sent a
> broadcast email to Academy members regarding Enron and corporate ethics
> issues.
>
> Academic research website Researchbitch.com <http://researchbitch.com> is
> getting praised by students for its easy of use and functionality and
> attacked by middle agers due to its name. The site's logo is of a female dog
> fetching homework, but allusions to the "correct" use of a seemingly
> offensive word only stir up the passions of the site's critics even further.
>
>
> 'I've been getting calls several times a day informing me that I am a
> misogynistic old man who has no shame," says Michael Lissack the Director of
> the Learner's Library parent company of the website. 'But, I have not met a
> student yet who did not make use of the same word (b*tch) to describe an
> unpleasant or tedious research assignment."
>
> Researchbitch.com <http://researchbitch.com> is the only search engine on
> the Internet which allows users to input queries of up to 10,000 words in
> length. Search results are drawn from a database of more than 500,000
> academic journal articles. The search technology is patent pending. Students
> can submit notes, outlines, or even drafts of their papers and the
> researchbitch.com search engine supplies them with links to high quality
> research materials and quotations with which to fill out their work.
>
> "Some professors complain it is a form of cheating, " Lissack said, "but
> since when is mindless drudge work a useful part of the assignment? We do
> the drudge work and free up time for the student to think, read, and write."
>
>
> Researchbitch.com is on the web at
http://researchbitch.com and on Facebook
> at
http://apps.facebook.com/doresearchforme/
>
>
> What are members thoughts regarding this type of site, in general, and this
> site's name, in particular? Is this a shameless marketing ploy? Is this a
> tempest in a teapot? Is it something else altogether? As classes have
> gotten underway and students are starting to submit their papers, I'm
> wondering if we should be defining new criteria for legitimate "research?"
> Thanks for your thoughtful input.
>
> Regards,
>
> Martin
>
> _____
>
> Dr. Martin B. Kormanik
> President & CEO
> O.D. Systems
> 1200 Prince Street
> Alexandria, VA 22314
> V 703-683-8600, ext. 20
> F 703-683-8606
> E
mkormanik@odsystems.com
>
www.odsystems.com
>
>
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