Evaluate Your Sources

Consider these guidelines when reviewing your sources ...
 
  • Authority: Who is the author? What is their point of view? 
  • Purpose: Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience?
  • Publication and Format: Where was it published? In what medium?
  • Relevance: How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
  • Date of Publication: When was it written? Has it been updated?
  • Documentation: Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are:

  • Original documents that are created or experienced concurrently (at the same time) with the event being researched.
  • First hand observations or contemporary accounts of the event.
  • Present a viewpoint of the time.

Examples: Interviews, news footage, data sets, original research, speeches, diaries, letters, creative works, photographs

Use any of these keywords, in combination with topic words or names, to search for primary sources in the library catalog.

  • Documentary history
  • Memoirs
  • Autobiography
  • Diaries
  • Letters
  • Pamphlets
  • Ephemera
  • Speeches
  • Eyewitness
  • Correspondence
  • Interviews
  • Personal Narratives

Where to locate Primary content

Think about what types of records or documents would have been created at the time period surrounding events and issues related to your topic? 

Here are some guiding questions (primary sources appear in parentheses): 

  • What was life/society like at the time?  (magazines, chronicles, newspapers, artworks)
  • What were the experience, beliefs, or priorities of relevant individuals / groups / organizations at the time? (autobiographies, interviews, diaries, letters, advertisements, manifestos)
  • What was the government attitude? What was the government of the day saying? (proclamations, monuments, records of debates, legislation, law codes)
  • How many people were involved in or affected by this issue / event? (statistics, official records, estimates based on material culture or remains)
  • What were people being told, what did they communicate? (newspapers, artworks, photographs, letters, secret communications)
  • What did things look like? (artwork, photographs, guide books for tourists, illustrations, postcards)

Source: LMU: William H Hannon Library

Gale Primary Sources 

  • Uncover primary source documents in the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers archive
  • Access millions of pages of content spanning many centuries and geographic regions
  • Explore a wide range of content including monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, maps, and more

HarpWeek 
Access to full-text and images from Harper's Weekly magazine. Contains primary research material for the study of the American Civil War. Coverage: American Civil War period, 1857-1865.

Secondary Sources

  • Works that analyze, assess, or interpret a historical event, an era, or a phenomenon

  • Present an interpretation of information, or offer a review or critique and are usually written well after an event. Often using or referring to primary sources.

Examples of Secondary Sources:  Research studies, literary criticism, book reviews, biographies, textbooks

Tertiary Sources

  • Identify, locate, and synthesize primary AND secondary sources.

  • Might be reference works, collections of lists of primary and secondary sources, or finding tools for sources.

Examples of Tertiary Sources: Encyclopedias, bibliographies, dictionaries, manuals, textbooks, fact books

Peer-reviewed journal literature is considered the highest form of scholarship.

Peer-Reviewed articles:

  • Are submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed or scholarly journal
  • Have gone through a rigorous evaluation by a board of scholarly reviewers in the subject area of the journal. 
  • Are reviewed for quality of research and adherence to editorial standards of the journal, before they are accepted for publication.

Scholarly, academic or peer-reviewed journals are very different from the types of popular or general interest magazines you may be more familiar with.

Characteristics of Scholarly Journals

  • Illustrations, if any, are graphs and charts, with few glossy color pictures
  • Articles are lengthy and list references in footnotes or end notes
  • Articles are written by someone who has conducted research in the field and is usually affiliated with a university or research center
  • Content of articles reports on original research or experimentation
  • Authors write in the language of their discipline; usually other scholars or college students, are assumed to have some knowledge of the field
  • Often, but not always, are published by a scholarly professional association
  • Few advertisements

        Examples: Journal of American Folklore, Shakespeare Quarterly, Sex Roles, International Migration Review, Foreign Affairs.

Research Tip: If you have searched your topic and now have a list of articles, you can use the limit in the left side bar of your search results list to restrict your list to just articles from “Peer-reviewed journals”. Most of the online databases also have a similar limit for finding scholarly or peer-reviewed articles. 

Popular Magazines

  • Articles are short and written to inform or entertain the general public
  • Often are illustrated with glossy or color photographs
  • Articles are seldom foot-noted and the source of information is seldom given
  • Authors are usually on the staff of the magazine or are freelance writers
  • Advertisements are aimed at the general public

        Examples: Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Psychology Today, People Weekly, Vogue

Trade Journals

  • Articles frequently focus on how to do a job better
  • Articles usually do not reflect original research
  • Journal often publishes job listings
  • Articles may not be footnoted or have few footnotes
  • Often published by a scholarly professional association
  • Usually contain news or information of interest to people in that profession
  • Advertisements are aimed at people in that profession

        Examples: American Biology Teacher, Police Chief, American Psychologist, Southeastern Librarian.

Reprinted with permission from Boatwright Library at the University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

An easy way to evaluate each website you visit is to use the CRAAP test.

Currency: the timeliness of the information

  • Does the site include the dates it was created and updated?
  • How current are the links? Have any expired or moved?
  • Consider if currency is especially important for the research topic.

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

  • Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
  • Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
  • Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: the source of the information

  • Is there an author? What are his or her qualifications?
  • What is the sponsoring organization? Is it reputable?
  • Is the domain appropriate for the search (.edu, .com, .gov, .org, .net, etc.)?
  • Look for links providing information about the author and his or her e-mail address.
  • Check for "about us," "philosophy," etc. for information about the organization.

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content.

  • Is the information reliable and correct?
  • Is there an editor who verifies the information?
  • Remember, anyone can publish anything on the web, and there are no web standards for accuracy.

Purpose: the reason the information exists

  • Does the website show a minimum of bias?
  • Is there advertising on the page?
  • Is the site objective or designed with a specific purpose in mind? Is the purpose of the site to sell, to inform, to persuade?

When reviewing websites, also think about coverage.   Consider:

  • Does the site contribute something unique to the Subject?
  • How does the site compare with other sites on this topic?
  • Is material covered in depth rather than superficially?
  • Is there a balance of text and images?
  • Is the site readily viewable, not needing special software or requiring a fee?