Online Resources
About Source Evaluation
What is a scholarly source? How can you tell if your source is reliable?
Does it provide the necessary documentation for APA citation?
Scholarly Sources
Sources consulted for scholarly papers generally
- have been reviewed by professional experts (peers, juries) in the field of study,
- contain content regarded as scholarly by professionals in the field,
- are archived (stored for availability) for a significant length of time, and
- provide full documentation for citation and retrieval
The best way to limit your research to scholarly sources is to rely on professional or university databases, indexes, and catalogues. On the Internet, for example, search engines like Yahoo, Google, or Lycos yield a range of sources, from scholarly to downright silly. Even "good" Internet sources may not provide the documentation you need for your reference list. On the other hand, you can select only scholarly sources by searching library databases such as ProQuest, EBSCO, Psych Info,or ERIC, where all sources are fully documented.
A university librarian can help you search the databases. At the top of this page you will find a link to the TC library Web page.
Internet Sources
The links below also provide good information about evaluating Web sources and other information sources.
Evaluating Resources:Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly
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Virginia Commonwealth University
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Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources |
Esther Grassian,UCLA College Library |
Critically Analyzing Information Sources |
Joan Ormondroyd, Cornell University, Olin and Uris Libraries |
Evaluation Criteria |
Beck, Susan. "Evaluation Criteria." The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources. 1997. |
10 C's for Evaluating Web Sources |
Betsy Richmond
Univ. of Wisconsin-Eau Clair
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How to Evaluate an Internet-based Information Source |
BIOME (medical)
United Kingdom
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Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages |
Jim Kapoun, Cornell University |
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Finding and Evaluating Health Information on the Net |
McGill Faculty of Medicine |
Critical Evaluation of Resources |
University of California Berkeley Library |
Evaluate Web Pages
This site contains an interactive tutorial with audio, as well as sample Web pages from several domains. |
Jan Alexander & Marsha Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University
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