Evaluating a source can begin even before you have it in hand by examining the bibliographic citation. Bibliographic citations have three main components: author, title, and publication information. These components can help you determine the usefulness of a source for your paper. Once you have the source in hand, you will also need to evaluate the content for such things as the intended audience, presence of bias and coverage of the topic. Below are some tips for evaluating citations for resources and for evaluating content of a resource.

INITIAL APPRAISAL: Author Date of Publication Edition or Revision Publisher Title of Journal

CONTENT ANALYSIS: Intended Audience Objective Reasoning Coverage Writing Style Evaluative Reviews

I. INITIAL APPRAISAL

A. Author

1. What are the author's credentials--institutional affiliation (where he or she works), educational background, past writings, or experience--in this area? Is the book or article written on a topic in the author's area of expertise? You can use the various Who's Who publications for the U.S. and other countries as well as for specific subjects and the biographical information located in the publication itself to help determine the author's affiliation and credentials.

2. Has your instructor mentioned this author? Have you seen the author's name cited in other sources or bibliographies? Respected authors are cited frequently by other scholars. For this reason, always note those names that appear in many different sources.

3. Is the author associated with a reputable institution or organization? What are the basic values or goals of the organization or institution?

1. When was the source published? This date is often located on the face of the title page below the name of the publisher. If it is not there, look for the copyright date on the reverse of the title page. On Web pages, the date of the last revision is usually at the bottom of the home page, sometimes every page.

2. Is the source current or out-of-date for your topic? Topic areas of continuing and rapid development, such as the sciences, demand more current information. On the other hand, topics in the humanities often require material that was written many years ago. At the other extreme, some news sources on the Web now note the hour and minute that articles are posted on their site.

II. CONTENT ANALYSIS

Having made an initial appraisal, you should now examine the body of the source. Read the preface to determine the author's intentions for the book. Scan the table of contents and the index to get a broad overview of the material it covers. Note whether bibliographies are included. Read the chapters that specifically address your topic. Scanning the table of contents of a journal or magazine issue is also useful. As with books, the presence and quality of a bibliography at the end of the article may reflect the care with which the authors have prepared their work.

A. Intended Audience

1. Is the information covered fact, opinion, or propaganda? It is not always easy to separate fact from opinion. Facts can usually be verified; opinions, though they may be based on factual information, evolve from the interpretation of facts. Skilled writers can make you think their interpretations are facts.

2. Does the information appear to be valid and well-researched, or is it questionable and unsupported by evidence? Assumptions should be reasonable. Note errors or omissions.

3. Are the ideas and arguments advanced more or less in line with other works you have read on the same topic? The more radically an author departs from the views of others in the same field, the more carefully and critically you should scrutinize his or her ideas.

4. Is the author's point of view objective and impartial? Is the language free of emotion-arousing words and bias?

1. Does the work update other sources, substantiate other materials you have read, or add new information? Does it extensively or marginally cover your topic? You should explore enough sources to obtain a variety of viewpoints.

2. Is the material primary or secondary in nature? Primary sources are the raw material of the research process. Secondary sources are based on primary sources. For example, if you were researching Konrad Adenauer's role in rebuilding West Germany after World War II, Adenauer's own writings would be one of many primary sources available on this topic. Others might include relevant government documents and contemporary German newspaper articles. Scholars use this primary material to help generate historical interpretations--a secondary source. Books, encyclopedia articles, and scholarly journal articles about Adenauer's role are considered secondary sources. In the sciences, journal articles and conference proceedings written by experimenters reporting the results of their research are primary documents. Choose both primary and secondary sources when you have the opportunity.

1. Locate critical reviews of books in a reviewing source, such as Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, or an appropriate periodical database. Is the review positive? Is the book under review considered a valuable contribution to the field? Does the reviewer mention other books that might be better? If so, locate these sources for more information on your topic. For more information on how to find book reviews, see Skill Guide No. 19, How to Find Book Reviews.

2. Do the various reviewers agree on the value or attributes of the book or has it aroused controversy among the critics?

3. For Web sites, consider consulting one of the evaluation and reviewing sources on the Internet.

Learning how to quickly determine the relevance and authority of a given resource for your research is one of the the core skills of the research process. For more assistance with the research process, consult your instructor or a reference librarian.