Research Process: Evaluate Information

If you are able to recognize the differences between a popular and scholarly source, you can focus your research to retrieve only the type of information you need.

Peer review is a process in which an article is screened and evaluated by a panel of experts before it is published.

Peer-reviewed journals are also sometimes called "refereed" or "scholarly" journals.

• Establish authority.
  • Who is the author? What are his or her credentials for writing on this topic?
  • Is the author working and writing under the auspices of a particular organization or agency? It is a credible organization?
  • Is the article or resource peer-reviewed?

• Determine the scope of the work.
  • Is the work geared to a particular audience or level of expertise?
  • Is it comprehensive or does it cover a narrow aspect of the topic?
  • Does it use specialized language or is it easily comprehensible?
  • Does it cover a limited region, time period, or group of people?
  • Is the primary purpose to provide information? to sell a product? to make a political point?

• Evaluate accuracy and relevance.
  • Can factual information be verified through footnotes or bibliographies to other credible resources?
  • Are charts, tables or data clearly identified and attributed to their source?
  • Are the source, scope and date of any statistics clearly labeled? 
  • Is it clear whether or not the information as been excerpted from a larger piece?
  • Is there a way to tell if this is the most recent version of a particular piece?

• Recognize bias and/or point-of-view.
  • Is there a particular bias or perspective? Is the item clear and forthcoming about its view of the subject?
  • If the item contains advertising, are the ads clearly distinguishable from the content? Is the content driven by ad placement?
  • Reject misleading information or poorly documented information.
  • Apply the same criteria standards to all materials - print and electronic.

• Determining if you have enough information.
  • Is it often hard deciding when to stop looking for information sources. Here are a few questions to help you decide if you have enough material. 
  • How long is your paper?
  • What is the focus of your paper?
  • Does the information you have leave you with any unanswered questions? Have you answered the who, what, where, when, and whys?
  • Do your sources present only one point-of-view?
  • Will the inclusion of any other information (charts, graphs, image, one more article, etc.) change your paper from being just OK to being outstanding?

• Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

             Short video tutorial from the Jean and Alexander Heard Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University.

• Evaluating Scholarly Content Online