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Evaluating Sources for a Research Paper

When choosing sources for a research paper, you need to think critically about eachsources reliability. By considering the authors qualifications and analysing andevaluating the content, you can decide whether to accept or reject the authors claims.The following strategies will help you choose reliable sources for your research papers.

Pay attention to the authors credentials and the publishing information. Ask

yourself

Is the author a reputable scholar in his or her field? What are the authorscredentialshis or her education, professional experience, andinstitutional affiliation?

What is the date of publication? Is the material current or out-of-date for

the subject? If you are researching in the humanities, you may usematerial written some time ago. If you are researching in science ortechnology, you will want material that it as up-to-date as possible.

Who is the publisher? Books published by university presses or articlespublished in professional or scholarly journals are more likely to be

reliable. Take care with Internet sourcesnot all of them are reliable,particularly bulletin board postings. You are better off with electronicsources that are clearly professional or scholarly publications.

Analyse and evaluate the content of sources. Ask yourself

Is the material at the appropriate level of sophistication for my needs?

Is the material a primary source (such as letters, government documents,contemporary newspaper accounts, and reports on the results of anexperiment) or a secondary source (i.e., books and articles based onprimary sources)? Because secondary sources restate, interpret or evaluate

primary sources, you need to watch for biases or inaccuracies in asecondary source.

What is the authors position on the issue?

Does the author support his or her position with sufficient facts?Facts are objective and verifiablethey are based on and can therefore beproven by direct observation or experience.

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If the author draws inferences (i.e., conclusions) from his or her evidence,are those inferences reasonable? Do they follow logically from the facts?

Has the author supported his or her position with opinions? An opinionis an interpretation of or a belief about a subject. Opinions are subjective

they express judgements/evaluations and reflect feelings. Opinionscannot be proven, but some opinions are more valid than others. You aremore likely to find expert opinions expressed by reputable scholars orexperts writing for reputable publications.

Has the author made any mistakes in reasoning? There are a number oferrors in reasoning (called logical fallacies) that can undermine theeffectiveness of an argument. These errors include

o distorting or oversimplifying a point of view different from

ones own

o oversimplifying a complex issue by presenting it in black-

and-white, either/or terms

o arguing that something is right because it has always been

done that way or because it is a tradition. [Slavery hasbeen a tradition in various places at various times, but that

fact doesnt make slavery right.]

o arguing that a position is right because most people support

it. The majority is not right if it supports an unjust cause.

o stating that because B came after A, A must have caused B

to happen

o making exaggerated predictions about the consequences of

an action

o making sweeping generalizations (stating that something is

true in all cases or false in all cases). Such statements arerarely accurate.