IMAGINE YOUR SOURCES: THE INFORMATION LIFECYCLE
The Information Lifecycle models how information about an event, topic or idea might emerge and evolve over time.
Note that this timeline is just a starting point to give you a general sense -- the transmission of information is not linear, and can look very different across different disciplines!
EVALUATE SOURCES:
Part 1: What are scholarly sources?
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 articles are written for an audience of other scholars. The chart below compares the characteristics of scholarly vs. popular (non-scholarly) sources: 
| POPULAR | SCHOLARLY | |
|---|---|---|
| author | Usually staff writers and/or journalists | Experts on the topic -- usually researchers, scholars and/or professors |
| audience | General public (for "popular" consumption) | Other experts (and students) in the field |
| editing & review | Editor(s); generally concerned with grammar, style, etc., with some fact-checking | Other experts ("peer reviewed"); generally concerned with quality, thoroughness of research, strength of argument, etc. |
| style & design |
Reasonably brief, typically uses colloquial if not informal language. Often illustrated with graphics, sidebars and other aesthetic elements. Sometimes accompanied by ads. |
More extensive in length; tends to be more formal and uses specialized vocabulary. Illustrations and charts are used only when furthering content. |
| goal or purpose | To entertain; and/or, to share general information | To share findings, advance and argument and/or engage with other scholars |
| sources | Few or none; if sources are used, there may not be formal citations. | Typically uses many sources, cited in detailed bibliographies, footnotes and/or endnotes |
| examples | Time Magazine; Sports Illustrated; New Yorker; Boston Globe | Annual Review of Political Science; American Historical Review; Sociology of Education |
It's important to keep in mind that scholarly sources are not always the best or only source available to you -- it depends on what information you are trying to find:
Part 2: Checking Facts
No matter what you're researching or what kinds of information you're working with, you should always situate your source within the context of the timeline, the audience, the content, etc. Think of it like doing a background check!
Who Gets to Publish?
Evaluating information means understanding who decides, and how, which information becomes available to you. "Scholarly" publishing is, by its nature, a competitive process. In order to publish in a scholarly journal or through a university press, an author often has to demonstrate a track record of successful research, as well as certain credentials (usually a PhD in the field). There are also issues, historically, with who has been able to publish. This is not only because of individual publications, but also a result of which voices (and opinions) have historically been welcomed in academia. There's a lot to unpack here!
Librarian Shea Swauger summed some of these issues up in College & Research Libraries News:
"The history of scholarly publishing is less a meritocracy of ideas and more a reflection of who held privilege in society. Access to at least one, and often multiple, intersections of privilege were almost a requisite for being considered to join in the scholarly conversation. Who and what got published was largely determined by established power structures that favored maleness, whiteness, cis-gendered heterosexuality, wealth, the upper class, and Western ethnocentrism. Note that these are still the dominant structures that control our social and scholarly discourse." (Swauger 2017, p. 603)
Because of these issues, in certain fields / around certain topics, there has been growing acceptance of voices outside of the "traditional" academic sources.
...and Who Gets to Read It?
Reliable information sources are expensive (which is why it's so hard to find them in Google!). People who are not affiliated with a college or university, who study/work at a university with poor funding, and/or who live in an area where internet may be restricted or unreliable, have less access to "scholarly" information than others. This influences who can benefit from scholarly information, and subsequently who is able to conduct research of their own on the basis of high-quality existing research.
When scholars publish their work, they do sometimes have the option to make that work fully available for everyone to read. Much of the time, however, that option costs them thousands of dollars out of pocket (and note, by the way, that scholars do not get paid for publishing, peer-reviewing publications, or -- usually -- editing the publications together!).
This graphic from Duke University Libraries shares examples of how information privilege can show up even at the student level:
Continually-updated dictionary of the history, archaeology and culture of the classical world.
Date(s): 8th c. BC - 5th c. AD
Complete access to the Loeb Classical Library -- Greek and Latin texts with facing English translations.
