There are many resources to use in your research, both inside and outside of the library. These include:

  • Newspaper articles
  • Trade journal articles
  • Scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles
  • Books
  • Data
  • Web resources

Each of these resources has its pros and cons and should be used in different situations. This guide is designed to help you learn to be critical of sources and to choose the best ones for your particular research topic.

Always remember, if you ever need help with your research, you can always ask a reference librarian. We are available via instant messaging, phone, e-mail or in person.

Choosing the Best Web Resources

Some people may tell you that you can't find quality resources on the Web. For some subject areas, this is simply not true. The Web is a treasure trove of quality information; the problem is that you have to sift through the trillions of pages that are not of high quality. And you need to be able to tell the difference.

Here are some of the sources of quality materials you can find on the Web:

If you are doing research on issues regarding governments, the military, foreign or domestic policy, and other related issues, the Web can sometimes provide more timely information on your topic. If you are looking for statistical data, government Websites, NGOs and think-tanks can often be excellent sources for data.

But even within these categories of items, you need to be critical of what you read. Government Websites will be biased for government policies. While some think-tanks are bipartisan, many strongly promote a specific viewpoint. You need to be skeptical of what you read online and consider everything you read (not just on the Web) in light of the criteria listed below.

  1. Who wrote it?
    • What are the credentials of the person who wrote this? If you can't figure out who the person is and what qualifications they have to write about this topic, you should be very skeptical of what you're reading.
    • Is this on their personal site or is it on an academic, government, organizational or journal Website? If it is on a personal site or a blog, that means that no group is endorsing this person's work. (Hint: Check the URL of the site to see if this person's writing is sponsored by an organization and make sure that organization is trustworthy. Is it on a .com, .gov, .org or .edu domain?)
    • Whether it's from a person or an organization, you may want to look for an "About Me" or "About Us" page to see if the organization or individual is trustworthy.
  2. Objectivity/Quality
    • What is the purpose of the resource? To inform? To sway your opinion? To solicit money or membership?
    • Who seems to be the intended audience? Scholars? Kids? Consumers? Potential members?
    • If this is on the site of a specific group, what are their goals?
    • Is the author trying to sway your opinion toward a specific conclusion?
    • Is the author's opinions based on verifiable facts? (If you can't verify their facts, don't believe them.)
    • Does the author provide a list of references to show where s/he got his/her ideas from? If so, you may want to check those sources to see how reputable they are. If not, you may not want to trust the author's conclusions.
  3. Currency
    • When was the page produced? If no date is indicated (check the bottom of the page), you should be careful as you may be using out-of-date material.
    • How up-to-date are the links? Beware of sites that have too many dead links as all of the information on the site may be dated.

When in doubt, you may wish to use this Checklist for Evaluating Websites provided by the University of Maryland.

Here are some examples of poor quality and good quality Websites on different topics. Can you tell which are good and which are poor?


Using Newspaper Articles in your Research

Newspapers are only appropriate sources under specific circumstances and for many of your papers, they should not be cited. Newspapers target general audiences with popular or current news stories. The articles are written almost entirely by staff reporters who write on a variety of subjects and do not have any special academic qualifications. Newspapers usually only include a brief summary or overview of an event with basic factual information. Newspapers also contain editorials, which are opinion pieces.

Here is what newspapers are good for:

  • Learning the basic facts of a case (who, what, when, where, and how).
  • Getting information about something that happened within the past few weeks and would not likely be covered in quality journals yet.
  • Understanding people's reactions to a historical event (this means using old newspapers to understand the public zeitgeist at the time).

While they can help to give perspective, newspaper articles should not be the only sources used in most research papers.


Using Trade Journal Articles in your Research

Trade journals are geared towards individuals in a specific profession. Articles are written by a mix of staff writers and professionals in the field. The articles in these magazines are usually written on hot topics in the field at that time and are often designed to offer practical advice to practitioners. While trade journals are of a higher quality than popular magazines (like Time, Newsweek and People), the articles are not peer-reviewed and are usually not based on original research.

Examples of trade journals include Library Journal, Searcher, PCWorld, APA Monitor, and Advertising Age.

Depending on what your instructor requires, these may be excellent sources for your research papers. Many trade journal articles can be found in the library databases. You just have to be careful and critical of articles in trade journals and only choose ones you feel are of sufficient quality to cite. And if your instructor requires that you use only scholarly, peer-reviewed, or refereed journals (the three terms mean approximately the same thing), you shouldn't use trade journals.


Using Scholarly Journal Articles in Your Research

You may find that your instructor requires you to use only peer-reviewed, scholarly, or refereed journal articles in your research. A scholarly journal article is one that presents in-depth, original research in a specific field. These articles have been written by experts in the field and reviewed by other scholars in the field for scholastic standards and validity. Peer review is the process of reviewing these articles. The articles are reviewed by other experts in the field (peers) and if the article doesn't meet rigorous standards, it will either be rejected or will be sent back to the author for corrections. Therefore, the conclusions in scholarly journal articles have been rigorously reviewed and are most likely to be based on fact.

Scholarly journal articles can sometimes be found online in academic repositories, but more often, they are found in the library databases. In some databases, you can actually check a box on the search page to only retrieve scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. For more on the differences between scholarly journal articles and magazine or trade journal articles, visit this page in the Research Guide.

The biggest thing to be concerned about when choosing a scholarly journal article is the date in which it was published. If you are writing about current treatments for a specific disease, current government policies, current network security strategies or current laws, you are going to want to make sure that the article you are using is relatively current. An article from 1992 on AIDS treatments will obviously not cover current treatments and an article on domestic violence prevention from 1995 will not reflect what people have done in recent years. When you're looking at things from a historical perspective, the date often is not important, but if you're looking at things from a current perspective, make sure your articles aren't too dated.


Using Books in Your Research

Some people think that if they read something in a book, then it has to be true. This may be more true of books produced by academic presses that have to stand up to more rigorous investigation, but in the age when anyone can self-publish a book and have it for sale on Amazon.com, it's just not the case. Not all of the books published even by commercial publishers go through really rigorous fact-checking. So just like with Websites, it is important that you think critically about what you're reading:

  1. Who wrote it?
    • What are the credentials of the person who wrote this? If you can't figure out what qualifications they have to write about this topic, you should be very skeptical of what you're reading.
    • Who published the book? If it is from an academic press, you can more likely trust that the book's facts have been checked. If it's from a commercial publisher or if it was self-published, you should be more skeptical.
  2. Objectivity/Quality
    • What is the purpose of the book? To inform? To sway your opinion? To solicit money or membership?
    • Who seems to be the intended audience? Scholars? Kids? Consumers? Potential members?
    • Is the author trying to sway your opinion toward a specific conclusion?
    • Is the author's opinions based on verifiable facts? (If you can't verify their facts, don't believe them.)
    • Does the author provide a list of references to show where s/he got his/her ideas from? If so, you may want to check those sources to see how reputable they are. If not, you may not want to trust the author's conclusions.
  3. Currency
    • When was the book published? If you're doing research on current strategies for nuclear deterrence and are reading a book from 1984 that talks about the Soviet Union, you may want to look for something a bit more current. If you're researching the history of nuclear deterrence, that book may be just fine.

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