Seven Steps to Effective Research

Step 6: Evaluating Your Resources

Evaluating Books

Evauating Periodical Articles (magazines, journals & newspapers)

Evaluating Internet Resources

Evaluating a source can begin even before you have the source in hand. You can initially appraise a source by first examining the bibliographic citation, an abstract of its contents, the makup of the url if it is a world wide web resource.

A bibliographic citation is a written description of a book, journal article, essay, or some other published material. Bibliographic citations characteristically have three main components: author, title, and publication information. These components can help you determine the usefulness of this source for your paper. Is the author recognized by others in his/her field?

Evaluating Books:

Information about authors may be found in the Reference Collection in biographical resources such as Current Biography, or in Contemporary Authors.

Reviews of books may be found through Book Review Index, or by searching periodical indexes for printed reviews.

Evaluating Periodical articles (magazines, journals & newspapers):

Periodicals are sometimes a resource for more current information than books may provide, because they are published quarterly, monthly, weekly or even daily.

The same biographical resources apply for periodical articals as for books.

In addition to looking at the author of the article, consider the quality of the publication in which it appears. Is it a recognized journal or is it a magazine?

Author

What are the qualifications of the author? Did they print the author's
background or affiliations?

Currency

How current is the information? When was the article published?

Coverage

How complete is the coverage of the information? Does it reference any
other work?

Biases

Are there any identifiable biases? What is the validity of the journal or
magazine?

Advertising

Newspapers: Keep in mind that newspapers are an excellent source for facts, for very current information, and for opinion. If the article appeared in a newspaper, was it on the front page, the editorial page, or in a specialized section of the paper? Is this local information or does it have national or international significance?

Evaluating Internet Resources:

There is a great deal of information available on the internet. Keep in mind, however, that anyone can put up a web site. So it is especially important to evaluate web resources critically. The validity of information of on the Internet is as important as locating information.

Verifiability Validity Through the Organization or Individual

Many institutional or organizational Web sites include statements about the type and source of information which is provided on their home pages, as well as the purpose of the organization itself. If this information is not offered, be especially careful about evaluating the data you find there. When evaluating electronic resources on the World Wide Web, check the page for information about the organization. It is usually located at the bottom of the page. This may give you a clue as to the validity of the information and the source of the information. It may also indicate a bias.

Check the suggested list to identify an identifiable valid resource.

1. What is the overall intent of the site? Entertainment, educational or business for profit?
2. Where is this information coming from? Can you identify the source?
3. Is this site sponsored by an identifiable individual, group, or organization?
4. Is the author / publisher a recognizable authority?
5. Does the author / publisher provide his/her e-mail address?
6. Is there an institutional e-mail address?
7. Is there a common link to the page from recognized authority?
8. Does the page provide other sources which could be contacted for confirmation or further
information?
9. Does the page cite a bibliography or provide references to confirm the accuracy of the
information?(this rarely happens)
10. How recently has the site been updated?

On to Step 7