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In the research process you will encounter many types of resources including books, articles and websites. But not everything you find on your topic will be suitable. How do you make sense of what is out there and evaluate its authority and appropriateness for your research?
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Evaluating resources for your assignment, thesis
• When you find information, you need to decide if it is appropriate to use for your assignment/thesis
• This short tutorial will help you to evaluate all the information you find
You will need to use quality or scholarly resources for your assignment/thesis
Ask these questions when you evaluate articles, books, websites, reports…or any other work that you would like to use!
• Who is the author?
• Is the item peer-reviewed?
• What references have been used?
• How relevant is the item for my assignment/thesis?
• How accurate is the item?
• How current is the information?
• What sort of language is used?
Who is the author?
• Quality publications will give you the name of the author or the organisation that is responsible for the information.
• (Be wary of publications that do NOT provide this information)
• Dube, L, & Ngulube, P 2012, 'Knowledge sharing in a multicultural environment: challenges and opportunities', South African Journal Of Libraries & Information Science, 78, 1, pp. 68-44, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 January 2014.
• Note : the authors are associated with reputable educational institutions. This suggests the article will be of a certain standard or quality.
Is the item peer-reviewed?
• Articles may be published in peer-reviewed of refereed journals
• This means the articles have been reviewed for quality by experts in the field prior to publication.
• Tip : Not ALL journals are peer-reviewed. You can check a journal’s website to see whether it is peer-reviewed.
Peer-reviewed?
What references have been used?
• Each argument made within a scholarly work should be backed up with evidence
– Scholarly work is written in an academic or research environment
• Look for in-text references (citations) and a bibliography
Example of an in-text reference relating to the pre-ceding statement.
The full reference appears at the end of the article in the bibliography
HOT TIP : The bibliography or reference list is a good place to look for further useful resources!
How relevant is the item?
• Once you have found the item, you need to check it against your assignment topic.
• Does it cover the main topic in enough depth?• Is the country and time period you are interested in
covered?• Is the source appropriate and useful for your topic? Are you
using • Primary sources : First-hand information from the time of the
event, such as newspapers, letters, diaries, interviews
• Secondary sources : Publications which quote other sources. They generally provide evaluation or analysis, and are written after the event
• Scholarly articles : An article or report written in an academic or research environment
How accurate is the item?
• It may be difficult to tell whether the information you are reading is correct if you are not familiar with the subject area.
• Is the author or organisation associated with a particular view or position and could be there be a conflict of interest?
• How is the article written and what sort of language is used? • Emotive or vague, opionated, propaganda?
• Are the sources of facts stated? Statistics from reliable sources?
HOT TIP : Scrutinise the domain of a website such as .com which indicates a commercial website , .ac or .edu is an educational institution, .gov indicates a government body, a ~ indicates a personal website
How current is the information?
• Knowing when your material was published is very important when you evaluate it.
Topics such as medicine computing and technology change rapidly.
How recently was the item published?
Dube, L, & Ngulube, P 2012, 'Knowledge sharing in a multicultural environment: challenges and opportunities', South African Journal Of Libraries & Information Science, 78, 1, pp. 68-44, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 January 2014.
How recent are the items in the bibliography or reference list?
HOT TIP : Be wary of websites which do not give date created or “last updated”. The creation date is often provided as a copyright statement ©2013
What sort of language is used?
• Is the LEVEL of the article appropriate? – Not too basic, or too specialised
Is the language scholarly, technical or professional?
should be specific to that field
Who is the intended audience?
scholars or general public?
Is the language at an appropriate level for you
Do you understand the content, do you understand what is being said?
Summary
• Consider the following points:
– Author credentials
– Peer-reviewed
– Examination of the references
– Relevancy of topic
– Accuracy of item
– When was it written?
– Language and intended audience
