Introduction

Just like popular sources you can find on the Internet, scholarly sources can vary in their purpose, quality, and relevancy to your work. Evaluating scholarly work can seem daunting as a beginning researcher, but there are several criteria you can use to get started. In this chapter, we cover some evaluation basics that you can use alongside your assignment instructions to get started with choosing appropriate scholarly sources.

Good news: you’ve encountered some of these topics already!

Note: The evaluation criteria below are not listed in any particular order. They may be more or less applicable to different assignments or fields of study.

But First: Is It Scholarly?

In Week 2, we covered how to identify several source types, including scholarly and popular sources. In Week 3, we covered how to search for these sources in a library search tool. Remember that by default, your search results may include both scholarly and non-scholarly sources.

Most college-level research assignments benefit from (or require) scholarly sources. Before evaluating a scholarly source, make sure it is in fact scholarly (and meets any other criteria from your assignment instructions) using the guidelines we provided in Week 2. When in doubt, ask the library! (Or, your professor.)

Topic (AKA, Is It Relevant?)

This category may seem self-explanatory – of course your source should be on the same topic as your research question! However, deciding whether an article or book covers a topic relevant to your research can be tricky.

Common issues for beginner researchers

Looking for Exact Vocabulary

It’s easy to get stuck looking for articles or books that use the exact same words as your research question. However, like we talked about in Week 3, including alternative terms in your search can help you find sources that are useful even though they use different terms or even cover a different, but related, topic. (For example, research about young adults may be relevant to a research question about college students, even if the article doesn’t mention the words “college” or “university.”)

Only Looking at the Title

For some sources, it may be obvious from the title that it is unrelated to your research topic. For others, it may be unclear. It’s also important to note that part of an article or book may be relevant to your topic, even if the entire work isn’t  – these sources can still be helpful for your research! If you’re not sure of the exact coverage of an article or book, use the following strategies:

For Articles

For Books

Peer Review

We covered peer review briefly in Week 3. For a refresher, re-watch our peer review tutorial video.

Not all scholarly research is peer reviewed. A lack of peer review can happen for several reasons, and it doesn’t always mean the work is of lesser quality. Some sources that are published in academic journals – for example, book reviews – don’t go through the peer review process, because they don’t reflect original research and serve a different purpose in the world of scholarly communication. Some books also do not go through a peer review process.

Unfortunately, it is also true that the scholarly landscape includes low-quality or predatory journals which do not facilitate peer review (or the review process is perfunctory).

In general, peer-reviewed research is considered higher quality than non-peer-reviewed work. Two ways you can determine whether a source is peer-reviewed are:

1. Look in the library record for the article. Often, the record will say whether the source is peer reviewed.
2. Search for the journal website. The journal usually indicates its peer review status or process in the about page, an editorial page, or another notable place on the website.

Publication Date

How recently a source was published can be a significant factor in whether it is appropriate for your research. Whether you need an up-to-date source can vary significantly depending on your field of study as well as your specific topic.

Publication date by discipline

Humanities (e.g., art, literature, philosophy)

Older sources are typically more useful and common in the humanities compared to other disciplines. For example, a philosophy paper may reference a text from Ancient Greece alongside a scholarly article written in the early 1900s. Both of these works may provide a valuable perspective on philosophical issues still being debated in the modern day.

Remember that perspectives change over time. For many humanities research topics, you may still want some or exclusively newer sources. For example, if you are looking for an explicitly feminist critique of a work of literature, you may want to include more modern articles or books. Even the priorities of a feminist analysis may have changed from, for instance, the 1980s to the current decade.

Social Sciences (e.g., psychology, political science)

Social science research can advance quickly, but not quite as quickly as some science and technology fields. Assignment instructions in the social sciences commonly say to use research published within the past 5-10 years.

Science & Technology (e.g., biology, computer science)

These fields can advance more rapidly than other disciplines. More recent publications are usually better, if you can find them. Some assignments may accept research in the last 5-10 years, while others may need research from the last 1-3.

Not sure where to start?

When in doubt, check with your professor or your assignment instructions.

Discipline Criteria

If you pursue advanced research in your field, you’ll learn unique criteria that will help you evaluate scholarly articles, books, and other materials in an in-depth way. For beginners, we won’t spend much time on this topic. However, we offer the following examples as an introduction of the type of evaluation you might do in scholarly research down the road.

Examples of Advanced Evaluation Criteria

Methodology

Advanced undergraduate or graduate research assignments may ask you to look for studies that follow a specific research or analysis method. Some examples of research method vocabulary are:

• qualitative or quantitative
• case study
• textual analysis/close reading
• ethnography
• longitudinal study

…and so on. Different methods are more or less appropriate for different disciplines and different research purposes. If you pursue advanced study/research in your field, you’ll likely take research methods courses or otherwise receive training in what methods are common in your field and how to evaluate a given work’s methodology.

As a beginner researcher, it is just important to be aware that you may encounter different approaches in your field of study.

Journal Audience & Reputation

Different academic journals, even in the same field of study, have different audiences, goals, standards, content, etc. As a result, journals vary in their prestige and relevancy to your own research. Publishing articles in a highly-ranked journal can be very competitive.

As a beginner, it is impossible to tell the reputation of a journal just from the title. While there are metrics (the Journal Impact Factor or JIF) that advanced researchers can use to evaluate how “good” a journal is, the best way to gain familiarity is just time spent studying the field and input from experienced researchers.

It is worth noting that academic publishing has a complicated history, and it is very much a for-profit operation. Just like with people, relying only on a journal’s “stats” can obscure other considerations of what counts as “good” scholarly work and prioritize perspectives that are already established in academia.

We don’t recommend worrying about a journal’s “prestige” for most undergraduate research purposes. But, if you decide to pursue graduate study, and especially if you ever want to publish your own research, this information is worth considering. We’ll touch on this topic again when we discuss the landscape of academic publishing in Week 6a.