Scholarly journals contain articles written by, and addressed to, experts in a discipline. Scholarly journals present the research of experts in a field, although these journals also often carry opinion pieces or even advertisements unique to the field addressed by the journal.
Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed or juried journals) send submitted articles to one or more experts for review before deciding to publish them. This review process helps ensure that published articles reflect solid scholarship in a field. Most often, the experts reviewing an article make critical comments on the text, comments that the author must incorporate into the article before its publication.
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Below are list of useful tips for finding and evaluating sources during your research process. The content consists of information on finding keywords, search tips, and evaluating sources.
Finding credible and accurate information is hard. This guide will help you evaluate academic, popular, and internet sources of information. The Evaluation Methods section provides tips on identifying fake news, real world examples and tips from TikTok, the CRAAP Test, and the SIFT Method.
Keywords: Use important words from your assignment, topic, or research question. Focus on nouns (person, place, or thing).
Synonyms: Use a thesaurus to find synonyms of your keywords.
Reference Entries: Use encyclopedias and reference databases (like Credo or Oxford Reference Online) to search your topic. These sources will introduce you to the words that experts in your field are using, which you can include in your searches.
Boolean Operators: Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine or exclude search terms.
“Phrase Searching”: Use quotation marks (“”) around words to search for an exact phrase.
Wildcard/Truncation: Use an asterisk (*) to search for that word and words with different endings.
Limiters: Used the tips and still too many results? Use the refine/filter/limiter options on the left hand side of your screen. There are many options to narrow your search results, such limiting your results by type (journal, newspaper…) or date.
Follow the References: If you find a good source, check who the author cited and also who cited the source. A great way to check for previous and future scholarship on a topic.
Watch the video below to learn how to find keywords as well as the important search tips described above.
Video Credit: "Keywords and Boolean Logic" courtesy of the BYU Online Learning Library.
Watch the video below for an overview of basic and advanced search strategies.
Video Credit: "Quick Tips and Shortcuts for Database Searching" courtesy of Modern Librarian Memoirs licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed).
Whether in our academic, personal, or professional life, we need to be able to find credible sources of information. To do this, we must be able to evaluate sources and information.
Watch the video below for an overview on the importance of critically evaluating our information.
Video Credit: “Evaluating Sources for Credibility” by North Carolina State University Libraries licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Finding reliable and accurate sources of information, whether from academic or online sources, can be challenging. No matter where you got the information, you should carefully evaluate a source before sharing online or using it in your research. An easy way to evaluate information is with the CRAAP or SIFT test. If this looks overwhelming, look at the TikTok tutorials on this page, which cover the same information but in a more recognizable format.
Watch this video to learn about the dangers of misinformation and tips on how to spot it.
Video Credit: "How to Spot Fake News" courtesy of FactCheck.org.
Check out these media literacy videos from the Washington Post's TikTok account! These videos are quick and packed with all the tools you need to be an expert at evaluating sources! This video offers some great tips on how to determine if a source is credible.
Video courtesy of the Washington Post on TikTok, originally published March 7, 2022.
Video courtesy of the Washington Post on TikTok, originally published March 3, 2022.
Evaluating sources, whether academic or popular, is tricky. The CRAAP Test was created by Sarah Blakeslee and her team of librarians at CSU Chico and is a tool that helps you determine if a source is credible. Additionally, the CRAAP Method stresses the importance of a source being a good source for your specific research needs. Don't waste your time on a source that isn't going to help you, do the CRAAP Test first.
If this looks overwhelming, look at the TikTok tutorials on this page, which cover the same information but in a more recognizable format. Also, check out the left side of the page for a video tutorial on using the CRAAP Test .
Watch this video to learn about how to evaluating sources with the CRAAP Test.
Video Credit: "Evaluating Sources" courtesy of Western University. licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Evaluating sources, whether academic or popular, is tricky. The SIFT Method was created by Mike Caulfied and is a tool that helps you determine if an online source is credible. Unlike the CRAAP Method, the SIFT Method was designed specifically for evaluating online sources of information. However, that doesn't mean it can't be used for academic sources, in your research use whichever method or tools fit your needs best. Don't waste your time on a source that isn't going to help you, do the CRAAP Method first.
If this looks overwhelming, look at the TikTok tutorials on this page, which cover the same information but in a more recognizable format. Also, check out the left side of the page for a video tutorial on using the SIFT Method.
Watch this video to learn about how to evaluating sources with the SIFT Method.
Video Credit: "SIFT: Evaluating Web Content" courtesy of WSU Libraries.
