So
your professor has assigned a research paper (or, really, any sort of
assignment that depends on information gleaned from outside sources, rather
than your own opinion). You’ve been told you must use legitimate
sources—something that will survive close scrutiny, that will provide useful
and accurate information or an educated opinion. There should be nothing
off-the-wall and certainly nothing that could be edited or published by just
any average Joe with a keyboard and wifi (lookin’ at you, Wikipedia). Well,
with a World Wide Web full of cute cat videos, strange how-to tutorials, and
the odd scholarly article thrown into the mix, this can be rather difficult
territory to navigate.
So,
how do we know what a legitimate source is? Where do we look for these sources?
And how might we detect a well-polished phony from the real deal?
Databases
Our
first, and most foolproof, step: The easiest way to ensure you’re finding the
best of the best articles, books, et cetera, is to use the databases provided
by Delta College. These can be accessed by going to Delta’s homepage, finding
the Quicklinks menu at the top of the page and scrolling to “Library Learning
Information Center.” Select this option. A new page should appear. From there,
review the left-hand side panel until you read *“Journals and Magazines,”
“Newspapers,” or even “Government Documents” (if you need that sort of thing).
Choosing one of these categories will lead you to a database where you can
search for sources.
*“Journals
and Magazines” is probably the most used section—it will even give you excerpts
from books and other mediums of publication. You can narrow your search for a
certain kind of article or topic in “Advanced Search.” I recommend using
InfoTrac, EBSCO, or CINHAL Plus databases.
Articles
found by using this method will typically be peer-reviewed (you can search for
only peer-reviewed articles by checking a box in “Advanced Search”) or will at
least be written by an author with a well-formed and educated opinion.
Which
brings us to our next step: Looking up an author’s credentials.
About the Author
Because
you are not limited to only using these online databases, this step can come in
handy. It’s perfectly okay to Google a topic for online articles or blogs. Sometimes
a professor’s assignment guidelines will even require a source or two from the
Internet. However, this is when it’s
most important that we are checking out our sources for legitimacy. An easy way
to do that? Research the author. Try to dig up some information on the author. Is
he or she a research professor at a known university publishing their work
online? Has he or she worked in the specific field in which you are researching?
Has he or she published other works on a similar topic, or is the work a
combined effort of a number of different people? Any of this information can be
helpful in determining if a source is reliable enough to use in an academic
paper.
Also
in regards to using a source from the Internet—simply looking at where the
source is published can give you an idea if the article will be right for you
or not. Anything published under a .com address should be double checked—either
by looking up the author, as we mentioned above, looking into other places
where the article may have been published, or checking out the legitimacy of
the website. (For example, something such as ConspiracyTheory.com will likely
have very biased or inaccurate information.) Information published under .gov
or .org is typically credible. Any site associated with reputable institutions,
such as well-known universities, credible media outlets, a specific government
program or department, or respected non-governmental organizations, can provide
useful sources.
The Timeline
Something
else to consider: How recently was an article published? Sometimes students
don’t realize they are dealing with outdated information. For example, let’s
say we’re doing research on the planets in our solar system. Well,
heartbreakingly enough, Pluto is no longer considered a planet. So if we are
using information dated before Pluto was kicked out of the prestigious Planet
Club, we should at least be aware of it. In this case, it wouldn’t affect the
other information you’re looking for (on other planets), but for some topics,
old information could really harm your paper.
Extra help!
This
about wraps up how to determine if a source is credible or not. There are, of
course, many methods to go about looking for reliable information—the above is
merely the simplest way possible in a condensed and readable format. For other
tips on researching, visit these Delta College pages provided under the
“Library Learning Information Center” tab on Delta’s website:
For more information on identifying credible sources, check out WRIT
Center Co-Director Angela Trabalka’s article “Locating Credible Sources”, which
can be found on the WRIT’s Virtual Student Handbook under the tab “Using
Sources”. Here’s the link!
