Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Locate Academic Sources

Consider Each Source's Credibility

Ask these questions:
Contributor/Author
·   Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
·   Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
·   Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
·   Book: What have reviews said about it?
Publisher
·   What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
·   Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
·   Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
Bias
·   Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
·   Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
·   Are there ads?
Currency
·   When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
·   Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
·   Does the source even have a date?
Reproduced
·   Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
·   If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
Citations
·   Is there a bibliography or are there citations/links to related credible sources?
·   Conversely, are there credible sites or sources that refer/link to this content? In what context?
Relevance
·   Is the content relevant to your thesis statement?
·   Is the tone (academic, casual, etc.) appropriate for your project?
Accuracy
·   Is the data verifiable and accurate?
·   Are there spelling or grammatical errors? If online, are any of the links dead?
Complete
·   Is the source comprehensive?
Credible
·   Based on previous criteria, decide whether the source is credible overall.


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