Evaluating Sources 

The ability to evaluate sources is one of the most important skills that university students can learn.  The quality of the sources used to prepare a paper impacts directly on the quality of the final product. Sources can be evaluated through an initial screening of the bibliographic citation, through an analysis of the content, and from reviews.

Bibliographic Citation-- bibliographic citation is the written description of a book, journal article, or some other published source. This information can assist you in determining the usefulness of the publication to you. Ask yourself the following questions about these elements:

Books

• Author.  What are the authors' credentials--educational background, past writings, experience in this area?  Is the book or article written on a topic in the author's area of expertise?  Biographical sources or information in the book itself can be used to determine these things. Biography Resource Center and Literature Resource are valuable sources for information on an author’s background.

• Year of Publication. Is the publication current or is it out of date for your topic?  Subject areas such as Medicine or Computer science often require the most current sources.  In areas such as History or Art, older works are sometimes the best.

• Edition. Often edition information can let you know if a book is standard and
                   well-regarded source.             

• Publisher.  Is the publisher a university press, a large commercial press, a government
                   body, or a publisher that publishes any materials submitted by an author?  If the
                   publisher is not well-known you must evaluate the contents more closely.

Journals

• Is this a scholarly or popular journal?

Popular Journals often:

•  cover a variety of topics, often many different ones in the same issue

•  are written to entertain and sometimes to persuade the reader

•  are written by authors with a limited knowledge of the  subject area

• are written by authors with a limited knowledge of the  subject area
•  are attractive in appearance, include many photographs and drawings, and have colorful, glossy pages
• rarely provide footnotes to other sources
• are good sources for an initial introduction to a subject area, but not the most scholarly, or the best leads to other sources

Scholarly journals are often:

• concerned with academic study and serious research

• written by scholars in the field, contain footnotes to relevant sources, and contain graphs or charts

• likely to have many pictures.

• have as their main purpose reporting upon important research in their field.

• are often published by a professional or scholarly association and screen their articles using an Editorial board of scholars or knowledgeable professionals

• Written for a scholarly audience of individuals knowledgeable about the subject area

• the best source of research studies, but not the best sources for an introduction to a subject area

A good way to find about about a periodical is to check it annotation in Katz's Magazines for Libraries (REF  Z6941 .M23)  for a description.

Content

More can be learned from looking at the source itself.  Evaluate your source in terms of the following:

• Audience  What type of audience is the author writing for? A specialized or a general audience?  Is the source right for you or is it too elementary or advanced?

• Objectivity Is the information covered fact, opinion, or propaganda?  Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. Does the information appear to be valid or well-researched, or is it questionable and not supported by evidence?  Are the assumptions it relies upon reasonable?  Does it leave out important information?  Is the author's point of view objective and impartial?  Is the language used emotional or free of such bias?

• Coverage  Is the material primary or secondary in nature? Primary sources are produced by those that lived through events or are the products of them.  Secondary sources are, or should be, based upon primary or other secondary sources.  They are both useful in different ways. Primary sources can provide useful evidence.  Secondary sources offer interpretation and analysis of events.

• Writing Style.  How is the publication organized? Is it logical and are the main points clearly presented? Is the writing pleasant to read or choppy and repetitive?

Reviews

Reviews of classic, current, or forthcoming books and reference works which provide information about authors are invaluable aids to those seeking to evaluate books and are more easily available than ever before!   They can be located through indexes of popular and scholarly journals and newspapers, specialized indexes of book reviews, book review web sites, and electronic sources of biographical information.

For works published in the last 20 years titles these electronic indexes:

Ebsco Host
Searchbank
Academic Universe

For items published prior to the last two decades try these classic sources.

Book Review Digest citations to short reviews that appear soon after the book is published. [INDEX] Z1035.A1 B6 1906-2001

Book Review Index-lengthier and more scholarly reviews that may take years to appear.  [INDEX] Z1035.A1 B61 1967-2001