Evaluating Resources
Not all information is created equally.
This is especially true of information found on the open web, via Google or other search engines. While there is high-quality information to be found, there is also utter crap. Whether for one of your courses or for your personal use, one of the key parts of the research process is evaluating your information, i.e., using your Crap Detector.
Based on the CRAAP test was developed by librarians at CSU Chico.
Quickly Evaluating a Journal Article Tool
- Evaluating a Journal Article PDF
Hanna's chart for how to evaluate a journal article quickly for credibility and topic relevance.
Scholarly vs. Peer Review
A scholarly resource is a resource that is written by an expert in his or her field. Some things to look for on a scholarly resource, specifically a scholarly article would be: publication information, what journal the article is from, Author(s)’ names and affiliations, references/citations, and a general ‘formal’ appearance. May or may not have a DOI (digital object identification) number.
A scholarly source is not always peer-reviewed or refereed. Peer-review means that the scholarly source has been reviewed by several peers before it has been published. This is not to say that scholarly articles are not reviewed before publication, but Peer-review normally means it was reviewed more diligently by other experts in the same field. You may have to check the journal’s website to REALLY know if it is peer-review.
