Evaluating Sources: Evaluation Criteria

Scholarly journals are usually made up of articles reporting the results of original research or thought. Scholarly articles are the preferred source of research because they are often “peer reviewed,” meaning that all articles were reviewed by a panel of experts prior to publication. 

You can access scholarly journals via D'Youville's subscription databases found here; search for specific journals here; or click the images below.

Popular sources often are aimed at the general public, and contain things such as general interest stories or opinion pieces. Popular sources are not often used in research because they are meant to entertain and have an intention to advertise and make a profit.

While at times very similar to popular sources, the main focus of a news source is to report information in a timely fashion. Even though more official in nature than popular sources, still proceed with caution while using a news source because they are not peer reviewed and can be at times biased in nature.

You can access D'Youville's holdings of newspapers by clicking here or on the images below

Citations – Citations can tell you a lot about a source that you are looking to use such as the author, title, and publication information (place & date). Older sources may not acceptable for your research (especially in the sciences) and the publisher can give you information about the quality & professionalism of the content.

Content/Coverage – Check the content of the document you are looking to read. If it’s a book, look over the index and table of contents to see if it matches your research needs. You can also check the book’s bibliography/citations for further insight. If it’s an article, check the abstract to get an idea of what the article is about.

Purpose/Audience – The content of a document can be meant for a variety of different people; the purpose of Entertainment Weekly is different from the purpose of a scholarly journal, for example. The amount of background information needed on the topic and its depth can also be a good indication of the intended audience.

Authority of the Author – When we talk about authority, we are talking about the power an author has to educate on a certain topic or subject. Indicators of an author’s authority would be his/her education, background, previous experiences within the field, and previous publications. Professionals within the field are frequently cited by their peers, so it can be relatively easy to start identifying authors. Sometimes authors will belong to professional organizations as well.

Objectivity – The information you are evaluating should be objective in nature, meaning it is free from any personal feelings or prejudices the author may have. Facts can easily be verified and checked; however opinions, even though they may be based on facts, come from the author’s interpretation of these facts. The information should be well researched and the language used should be impartial. 

Currency – How often the information you are dealing with is updated. Different kinds of disciplines and subject matters have different kinds of standards when it comes to currency. Research in the humanities, for example, can still be relevant years after it has been published; however, research in the sciences can be very rapid and become out-of-date quickly. This is also relevant for newspaper publications and websites. Books will list their publication date on the title page and websites will often list them at the bottom of the page. 

Want an easy way to remember all of the Evaluation Criteria? Try RADCAB!

Google Scholar

Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

What is a Domain?

A domain is essentially the name of a website. It can, however, provide information as to the credibility of a source. Here is a visual to help you understand how a URL is constructed.

Domain Types