NATRS 270 - Stream/Wetland Ecology

It is important to evaluate your sources!

Not all resources are created equal! There are a number of criteria to consider when determining whether or not a source is reliable (able to be trusted) and appropriate for your academic work.

Authorship
  • Who is the author?
  • What makes the author an expert in the field he or she is writing about? What are his or her qualifications? Does he or she have education or work experience in the field? Has he or she published anything else about the subject? (HINT: Google the name of the author to find this information).
  • If there isn't an author listed, is the information authored by a government, corporate, or non-profit agency?  Is the agency or organization recognized in the field in which you are studying, and is it suitable to address your topic?
Point of View or Bias
  • Does the source promote one point of view or one agenda?
  • Is the information provided as fact or opinion?
  • If the information is found online, does the Web site have advertisements? If so, are the ads part of or separate from the rest of the site?
Currency
  • Does your topic require current information?
  • Does the source include a date of publication or a "last updated" date?
References to Other Sources
  • Does the source include a bibliography or links to other web sites?
  • What types of sources are cited (primary/secondary, popular/scholarly, current/historical, etc.)
Relevance to Topic and Assignment
  • Is the information you found related to and useful for your topic and assignment?
  • Is the source the appropriate type for your needs?  For example, do you need a book or a scholarly journal article? Do you need primary or secondary sources of information?
  • Is the information too broad or too specific?

Types of Information

What is the Difference?

Learning the difference primary and secondary sources is important. Ideally, you want to include both types of sources in your work. 

Differences between primary and secondary sources
Primary Sources Secondary Sources
Cover of a journal article with original research articles inside cover of magazine - Mother Jones

Primary Source Information comes directly from real life data or from the time of an event.

Examples include:

  • statistics,
  • laboratory or social experiments and scholarly articles that report on the results,
  • news reporting that occurs when an event happens,
  • diaries/journals,
  • product specifications, and
  • transcripts of speeches, testimony, or meetings.

Secondary Source Information comes from a collection of primary-source data that is drawn together to provide a larger picture view of an event or to provide an opinion or review.

Examples include: 

 
  • most textbooks,
  • summaries of past research (called "literature reviews"),
  • overviews and encyclopedia works,
  • policy or product recommendations and
  • reviews of products or works.
a closer look at primary and secondary sources

Identifying Primary Sources

As shown in the image below, a primary source is one that has undergone scientific study or experiment. It is original research that has been complete by specialists or experts in the field. 

  • This image shows that the journal is called "The New England Journal of Medicine" so you can expect to find medical topics discussed within, written at an academic level.
  • The image shows also the title of the article "Green Tea and the Risk of Gastic Cancer in Japan." It is a very specific study, and the highlighted sections on the image show that there is a discussion of how the original research was carried out and what the results of the study were.

Identifying Secondary Sources

In the previous tab you were able to see an image of a primary source, a scholarly journal article discussing the health impact of green tea in relation to cancer. In the image below is a secondary source. It was written in a newspaper, "The New York Times" and does not offer scientific study or experiment. It doesn't not contain original research, nor was it written by experts in that field. Rather, as a newspaper article it was written by journalists. 

  • Notice the title of the article: " The Claim: Green Tea Helps Prevent Cancer"
  • You can see that it just mentions research studies and some of their findings, but it doesn't include the actual research, citations, or additional info. It is very brief, and it was written with casual, easy to read language. It provides an analysis or a summary of a primary source.(click on image to enlarge)

(click on the image to enlarge)

image of the first page of a journal article.

(click on the image to enlarge)

image shows an article from the New York times newspaper

Popular, Trade, Commentary, & Scholarly Publications

Different source types and their features

How can you tell the difference between types of periodicals?

magazine image

Popular magazines / Newspaper articles

magazine image

Trade, industry and professional journals

magazine image

Journals of commentary and opinion

magazine image

Scholarly & research journals

Author 
Usually a staff writer or journalist. Sometimes the author's name is not provided. Writers with subject knowledge or practitioners and professionals. Great variety: specialists, journalists, organizational members, others. Primarily experts, often university researchers, whose credentials are usually included.
Audience
Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic. Multiple levels of readers: general public to practitioners and professionals. General audience, high school and up. Aimed at professionals, researchers, scholars, or others with more in-depth knowledge of the topic.
Content
Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts. Trends, forecasts, news and events in the field; products, book reviews, employment, biography. Commentary on social and political issues, specific viewpoints, book reviews. Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research methods, conclusion, bibliography.
Length
Shorter articles providing broad overviews of topics or recent news and trends. Short newsy items to longer, in-depth articles. Varies:  short, pithy, articles to more in-depth discussion.  An issue may be devoted to a particular topic. Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics.*
Appearance
Glossy, color pictures, advertisements (magazines). Ads related to the field or profession.  Charts, tables, illustrations Varies considerably.  Some have graphics and advertisements. Dense text, usually with graphs and charts, fewer specialized, advertisements.
Credibility
Ads related to the field or profession.  Charts, tables, illustrations. Articles reviewed by editors from professional associations or commercial/trade organizations. Publications support a particular viewpoint or specific interest group.  Opinionated. Articles reviewed by a "jury" of experts--"peer-reviewed" or "refereed"—before publication.*
Examples

Magazines: People, Essence, Hispanic, Good Housekeeping, Out, Time, Vogue, Sports Illustrated

Newspapers: Seattle Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal

RN, Library Journal,  Professional Builder, Contractor Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality National Review, America, Harper’s, New Republic, Commentary, Progressive, Atlantic Journal of American History, Nature, Journal of Business, Lancet, Bioscience

Adapted from ACC Library Services Libguides.

Is this article popular or peer-reviewed? Can you tell?

(click on image to enlarge)

image of an article

Information about scholarly books

A scholarly book will: 
  • be written by an expert or experts in the field (PH.D., M.D., etc preferred)
  • usually present new research or analysis of previous research
  • often be printed by a University Press
  • not be written for popular audiences
  • include extensive references to other scholarly work
Other Signs to Spot a Scholarly Book:
  • Read the record for the author and publisher. Are the credentials academic (an university press, a professor as an author)?
  • Are the language and subject matter of an academic nature?
  • Are there In-text citations?
  • Is there a thorough and exhaustive (long) reference list? 

(click on images to enlarge)

book cover for "Urban Cities"

Here we can see the cover of the book, the title and the author. 

Within the first page of the book, you should expect to see information about the author. In the image below, you can see a small section that explains who the author is. 

The author bio establishes the author's expertise in her field. By reading this biography section on her, we can see that she has a PhD, and has researched, worked and written in her field since 1990.

image of a small paragraph which includes information about the author and her credentials and academic affilations



This image below shows a part of the text from one of the pages. Notice the presence of in-text citations. All claims are thoroughly sourced and backed up. Note too the academic tone and language of the text.

(click on image to enlarge)
image of the text of the book 


Finally, you should expect to see references - multiple pages of citations that give credit to the sources the author used during the research for the book. The image below is just that, showing that this larger work is thoroughly referenced. This is page 1 of 15 pages of references.

(click on image to enlarge)

image of the references page, showing the sources and citations the author used

Identifying common elements in a journal article

Look through the images and notes below to learn more about the various parts common to a scholarly article

The Citation information: Authors, Article title, Journal information and Abstract
  • As shown in the image below, much of the citation information about the article appears on the first page. Here we see the title of journal, page numbers, and the publication date.
  • Multiple authors are common in search and they usually include academic affiliations that are listed just near the authors' names, as shown in this image, or as a footnote at the bottom of the page. 
  • Also on the first page, you can often see the abstract to the article, which is common.

(click on image to enlarge)

Image of the first page of a journal, showing the titles, publication info, the abstract. Text added to the image is found in the text before this image.


In-Text Citations
  • As show in the image of the article text below, you can see that in-text citations are common. This article also shows the contact information for the main author. 

(click on image to enlarge)

image of the text of a journal article, pointing to the in-text citations and use of foot notes. Also shows the common location for contact information for the original author.


The Methodology or Experiment
  • Common to these articles is a section where their research process is explained.
  • This method or experiment section lays out the process by which the researchers conducted their project. This section will provide all the details for replicating an experiment such as materials used, equations, etc.

(click on image to enlarge)

image of the article text, showing the methods and experiments section. Text from image appears in list before this image.


The Results and Discussion
  • You should always expect to see a results and discussion section at the end of the article
  • These sections can be presented separately or under one heading. Results give jus the facts of the experiment without any interpretation.

(click on image to enlarge)

image shows the results and discussion sections of the article - text in the image is written in the section above.


Data - Tables and Charts
  • Throughout the article you may see charts, tables, graphs or diagrams depicting the data collected through the study.

(click on image to enlarge)

image of some charts and graphs that appear within the article. The notes in the image are written out in the text above.


The References
  • One of the easier ways to tell a scholarly source are the list of citations you'll see. Academic literature always includes a reference list. Citations give credit to the source of information and show that research is based on a solid foundation. 

(click on image to enlarge)

image of the reference page. Notes within the image are written in the text above the image.

 

The Information Timeline

Review the table below for more information about where you can look to find information based on your specific information need

Chart to choose between source types

If you need...

Try this source...

up-to-the-minute news

World Wide Web, broadcast media

current daily information 

newspapers, web-based news, broadcast media

local information

newspapers, web-based news, broadcast media

in-depth, thorough treatments of a topic of subject

books

background information

subject encyclopedias

statistics and data

statistics reference books, online statistical sources

research on a focused topic

scholarly journals

historical information

books

popular events

magazines, broadcast media

primary research 

scholarly journals 

editorials and opinions

newspapers

current data from government agencies

world wide web

reliable, broad overview of topics

subject encyclopedias

This chart is used courtesy of Clark College Library, IRIS: Types of Information.