Choosing the right sources
Choosing the right sources
When doing research for papers or projects, think critically about the various sources of information and decide what kinds of sources would be appropriate for your research. When is it appropriate to use articles (from scholarly journals, magazines, or newspapers) for research? When should you use books? What about web sites and other Internet sources?
For many academic research projects, instructors will require that you research many different types of resources. Often it is difficult to recognize the value of a particular resource. Our guide to evaluating resources lists six criteria for evaluating resources and questions or topics that you should consider in choosing appropriate resources for your research.
Articles
Articles are brief essays or reports published in "periodicals," i.e. things that are published on a periodic basis, including journals, magazines, and newspapers. Periodicals are usually considered "scholarly" (College English, Journal of Marriage and the Family), "popular" magazines (Discover, Time), or "professional" or "trade" journals (Advertising Age, Supermarket News.)Why choose articles?
- Great sources for current information
- Good place to find brief overviews of topics
- Sources for different aspects of a topic, or specialized information
- Great place to find local information
- They are shorter
- Material goes through a publishing process, so there is some reliability and accountability
When are articles not enough?
- When you need in-depth, comprehensive coverage or overview of a topic
- When you need a single author's opinion
- When you need a classic treaty by a "guru" (example: Peter Drucker on management)
- When there is no "condensed" version of a classic, or no articles on a specialized topic
Which type of articles to choose?
- Scholarly articles are written by experts or scholars in a field; they report on research being done; they undergo "blind review" or "peer review" by other scholars to insure the reliability and accountability of the information
- Popular articles are aimed at the general public; cover a variety of subjects including current events and news; they are often unsigned and are not necessarily reviewed
- Professional or trade articles are written for members of a specific industry, trade, or profession; may look at industry trends, specific companies or products; are written by staff writers or experts in the field, but not necessarily peer reviewed
- Newspaper articles are written for the general public, often in a particular area; cover various subjects, current events, and items of local interest; are written by professional journalists or writers
- Articles can be considered primary sources when they report information in its original form or are contemporary accounts of events (for example, eyewitness accounts of a disaster)
Books
Books available in libraries and bookstores can be either popular, or aimed at students or scholars in a field. Books in libraries are usually either "circulating" books (books that you can check out and take with you) or "reference" books that can't be checked out but can give you background information, overviews facts and statistics, definitions, or directory information.
Why choose books?
- Excellent place to find in-depth discussion or broad discussion of a topic
- Sources for collections of information on a particular topic, with chapters on related topics
- Great sources for historical information (older than a year or two)
- Material goes through a publishing process, so there is some reliability and accountability
When are books not enough?
- When you need multiple viewpoints, especially ones that you can read in a short amount of time
- When you need follow-ups on original research
- When you need to see how an author's work is cited over time
Which type of books to choose?
- Circulating books may be popular overviews of a topic, or may be in-depth studies by experts, but they can be read at length
- Reference books can be consulted for background information, facts, statistics, and similar "quick lookup" information
- Books can be considered primary sources when they report information in its original form or are contemporary accounts of events (for example, Darwin's The Origin of Species
Web sites and resources
Web sites are "pages" or collections of information on the World Wide Web. Web sites cover a variety of resources including commercial sites (Amazon.com), academic or institutional sites (the University of St. Thomas), special interest, and opinion sites.
Why choose web sites?
- Good source for current information, current events and trends
- Good source for information relating to the web, e-commerce, technology, etc.
- Convenient source for a lot of material
- There can be some reliability and accountability, but it can be hard to tell
When are web sites not enough?
- When you need peer-reviewed or scholarly sources
- When you need historical information
- When you need to do a complete literature search
Which type of web sites to choose?
- Search engines and metasearchers (Google, Yahoo!, Dogpile, etc.) are indexes of websites that have been compiled by human beings or by an automated process. These are good for searching keywords on your topic.
- Subject collections or indexes (Yahoo, Oingo, etc.) are categorized lists of topics, useful for browsing to find related web sites. These are good if you are trying to focus on a topic.
- Publisher/periodical web sites (Star Tribune, New York Times) will let you search their recent articles (they may require registration, or charge a fee.)
- Corporate web sites (Medtronic) can provide company overviews and product information, but they often will provide what they want you to see, rather than a complete, unbiased picture.
See also:
Evaluating Resources
Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Source
What is a Scholarly Journal?
To summarize:
Articles, books, and web sites are useful for research in different ways.
Articles and books are more likely to have gone through a review process for reliability and accountability.
