Looking critically at your sources
Information proliferation is both a blessing and a curse. Your research will often result in a list of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of resources among which you will have to choose those that are worth using in your project. One important thing you need to keep in mind is that
NOT EVERYTHING IN PRINT OR ON SCREEN IS RELIABLE, and some sources carry more weight than others.But how is it possible, especially for someone who’s not an expert on a subject, to select the most appropriate and best piece of information? Here are some important criteria to help you evaluate your sources:
1. Scholarly or Popular: why does it really matter?
One of the first things you need to consider as you weed through your sources is the type of publication your information comes from. Are you dealing with a scholarly publication or a publication with more popular character?
The distinction between scholarly and popular literature often implies differences in complexity in which information is presented and also in accuracy and reliability. Scholarly publications, as you might guess, tend to be more complex in language, but also more authoritative, and accurate. Depending on your project requirements, you will want to look for information at a level appropriate for your research.
A one-page article in a popular magazine will not be as authoritative as a scholarly book or journal article. The latter are usually thoroughly documented and pass peer review before publication. Of course, that does not mean that you should never use magazine articles in your research; just be more critical.
As for Web sites, keep in mind that they are a mixed bag and that usually there is no "quality control" to assure you how reliable and useful the information is that you get from them.
How can you make the distinction between popular versus scholarly publications? There are different clues that you may use to efficiently and effectively determine the nature of your book, article, or web site. For example, you really don't need to read all 400 pages of a book to figure out if it's a scholarly publication or not. The information on the book jacket, sometimes its title, the language it uses, the type of audience it addresses may be enough evidence to help you make your determination.
Among periodicals, the word "magazine" implies popular literature whereas the word "journal" means scholarly publications. The two columns below show you clearly the distinction between these two different types of publications:
Popular Magazines Scholarly Journals
geared to laymen, nonprofessionals geared to researchers, professionals
articles written by staff, sometimes unsigned articles written by researchers and experts
discuss current events, issues of general interest report primary research results
no bibliographies at the end of articles bibliographies at the end of articles
advertisements no advertisements
color pictures
statistical
tables, diagrams
