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VAHI 100: Introduction to Visual Arts (Stein)

Identifying & Evaluating Sources

During your time at Holy Cross, you may find yourself using a combination of both popular and scholarly sources. 

A popular resource is a resource for 'popular' consumption -- it has been written so that most people can easily read and understand it. This might include newspapers or magazines, some books, and some journals written for people in specific jobs. While there is usually an editor who checks these sources for good writing and for errors, this is mostly done by a single person rather than a group. Popular articles are usually written by journalists or professional writers, although sometimes they are written by experts on a specific topic. 

Examples: Magazine articles, blogs, news articles

Scholarly sources are written by experts on a particular subject (for example, a professor or other researcher). They also go through an extra process of review and approval by a group of other experts before they can be published. Usually, scholarly sources are written in 'academic-ese', meaning they are full of technical jargon, and designed to be read by other scholars. You will probably find yourself using many scholarly sources in your other Holy Cross classes. However, because scholarly sources take a long time to be approved and published, they are not good sources for current news.  You will usually find academic articles published in professional journals, which are often behind paywalls and hard to access freely outside of university settings.

Examples: Academic Journal Articles, Books or Book Chapters published by Academic Publishing houses

No matter what you're researching or what kinds of information you're working with, you should always interrogate your sources. Situate your source within the context of the timeline, the audience, the content, etc. Think of it like doing a background check! 

How to Spot Fake News Infographic. CONSIDER THE SOURCE Click away from the story to investigate the site, its mission and its contact info. READ BEYOND Headlines can be outrageous in an effort to get clicks. What’s the whole story? CHECK THE AUTHOR Do a quick search on the author. Are they credible? Are they real? SUPPORTING SOURCES? Click on those links. Determine if the info given actually supports the story. CHECK THE DATE Reposting old news stories doesn’t mean they’re relevant to current events. IS IT A JOKE? If it is too outlandish, it might be satire. Research the site and author to be sure. CHECK YOUR BIASES Consider if your own beliefs could affect your judgement. ASK THE EXPERTS Ask a librarian, or consult a fact-checking site.

Photo of a worksheet titled "source checklist". Text on the image reads "Author Who is the author? How is the author qualified? Is the author an expert? Does the author have bias? (Remember that a bias may not be directly stated.) Be wary if you cannot determine an author or group responsible for the content you are reading! Host or Publisher Who hosts the site? OR Who publishes this resource? What is their purpose and audience? Does the host/publisher have bias? (Remember that a bias may not be directly stated.) What is the domain extension? The publisher and/or domain can help you determine how reputable a website is. For example, .gov is the domain for United States government sites and .edu is for US Educational institutions. Note that not all .com sites are unreliable and not all .org sites are reputable -- .org simply means that the website is for a non-profit group. Source Does the resource provide its sources? Does it refer/link you to other credible sources? Is the information able to be cross-referenced? Currency Is the site regularly updated? When was it published? Is there any information which seems out-of-date?

How can I Tell if my Source is Scholarly or Popular?

How can you tell if you have a scholarly article in your hand? 

Here are some tips: 

  • Most scholarly articles will be published in academic journals. Magazine and newspaper articles are not scholarly.  Some, but not all, books are scholarly -- it depends on who wrote them and how they were published. 
     
  • Scholarly resources will always include citations and a bibliography. Other resources usually cite very few or no other sources, and will have only a short bibliography or none at all. 
     
  • If you see citations, that doesn't necessarily mean that the source you have is scholarly. If you're not sure, check for information like: the author's name and professional title; where the article was published (was it an academic journal?); who published the article; or who the article was intended for. 
     
  • Book reviews and editorials (opinion pieces) are never scholarly, even when they are published in scholarly journals. They are often very short and contain only one person's perspective on the specific work, and therefore are not very quotable or authoritative on the subject area the reviewed work is about. However, book reviews and editorials can be helpful in your understanding of certain sources- reading a book review of a source you plan to consult for your work can help you frame the main ideas of the work better, and understand the work from the view point of other experts in the field.