Talk:Anna Belfer-Cohen

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Reuveny in topic Addition of unsourced information

Addition of unsourced information edit

@Reuveny: Thank you for the massive expansion of the article. Unfortunately, none of the information you added was supported by a reliable source so I've had to temporarily remove it. All information on Wikipedia has to be backed up by a direct reference to a reliable source, especially biographies of living persons. You mentioned in your first edit that the text was "courtesy of Prof. Leore Grosman" – sadly, if that means its based on unpublished material then we have a problem, because we cannot use that as a source on Wikipedia. If there are published sources you could reference though, then you can just revert my last edit to get the text back and add them; you don't have to rewrite it from scratch.

Also, I would appreciate it if you could add to the existing content, such that it is, rather than completely replacing it (e.g. the selected publications section). I wish I could have made this article longer to begin with but could find practically no biographical information on Belfer-Cohen. – Joe (talk) 17:01, 24 November 2019 (UTC)Reply

First, Grosman complied the material and helped write it, she is not the "source". All of the information I added , execpt for minutiae (such as her parents' names) are based on her official web page in the Hebrew University that I cited, or on her publication, whcih are listed in the Google Scholar profile that I cited.
I find no reason to provide source to the fact that Belfer-Cohen studied the Natufian Culture in Hayonim Cave, when several publicaitons pertaining to that are listed at the end of the article and in the sources I mentioned.
Thus, I revert the article and if you find specific unsubstantiated claims, I'll be happy to fix them. Reuveny (talk) 18:21, 24 November 2019 (UTC)Reply
I added the publications list from the previous version. Reuveny (talk) 18:26, 24 November 2019 (UTC)Reply
@Reuveny: Thanks for the response. Unless I'm missing something, almost none of this is supported by either page. The short page on Belfer-Cohen on the HUJI website doesn't mention anything about her family background, education, or career history, but here there is a whole section on them. It doesn't mention her MA or PhD research, but again here they are described in detail. Some of the field projects you've added are there, but they are described in much more detail than in the source, and a page and/or article written by Belfer-Cohen herself cannot possibly support assertions of impact such as "made important contributions" or "set the basis for the modern research of this culture". For that we'd need third party sources.
Maybe some of this is in her publications (although again there is a problem on over-relying on primary sources in biographies) – it's impractical for readers to check without specific references. It would be helpful if you could add inline citations for each claim so that others can more easily fact-check. Otherwise, it wouldn't really make sense for me to tag every single sentence in a biography of a living person with {{citation needed}}. That's why I reverted to the last version that was fully sourced. – Joe (talk) 20:34, 24 November 2019 (UTC)Reply
Ok, I think I understand your position better now. I added some inline citations, specifically for her MA and PhD research and for some of her projects. I removed some of the "impact" sentences, except for the easily verifiable claim that her research is well cited in these specific fields. I will continue, but just to make sure - it is true that Belfer-Cohen has not yet had a biographical publication (such as a forward to a feschtrift volume) that I can cite. I did not think that some of the biographic details, which presumably no one (including the subject) has a good reason to make up or distort, need this kind of "proof". If they do, then I can remove them, although this would be too strict in my opinion. In any case, the more important part is her research activity. Reuveny (talk) 08:50, 25 November 2019 (UTC)Reply