Source Evaluation

Referring to sources is a vital part of scientific communication. There could be a wide range of relevant sources within your field of study and so you need to assess whether they are useable for academic writing.

It is sensible to find earlier research that may support your argument for a certain viewpoint. These sources should be of sufficient quality.

The advice on this page is meant as a guide in the process of assessing sources for writing at university-level. Which sources are suitable for your essay would be dependent on the context, and must be assessed individually. Nevertheless, there are some general rules you should be aware of whenever you assess a source.

The author’s credibility is essential in deciding whether you should use the source. What authority does the author have? Does she have formal competencies, is she associated with an academic institution, does she show knowledge on the field of research and is she basing her conclusions on credible sources?

The Internet allows everyone to publish anything they want. It is easy and affordable, and therefore information found on a webpage may not always be written by experts. The information may be inaccurate or completely wrong. Most webpages do not have editors or specialists who review what is published.

Scientists publish scientific articles to show new research results.

A scholarly article should fulfill several requirements:

• Research results that are presented should give new insight into a subject.
• The results must be verifiable, so that they may be used in further research.
• The scholarly article must be read, assessed and approved by the author’s peers before it is published. This is called peer review.
• The scholarly article must always contain citations and correct bibliography.
• New knowledge is built on existing knowledge, and a scholarly article will always cite the previous research it is built on. This is done by citations and bibliographies.
• A scholarly article is most often published in a scholarly journal, published by a publishing house or an organization, but it may also be published in a scholarly anthology (a collection of articles with an editor).
• A scholarly article should be written in a language that many understand.

How to check your sources: 

• The scholarly article must be peer-reviewed. On the publisher’s website, you can find out if a journal has been peer-reviewed. Here is an example of the journal Nature and of Nordic cultural policy journal.
• A scholarly article should be written in a language that many understand. If the article is of international interest, it is often written in English.
• Always check that the bibliography is easy to follow and correct. The references should be given in such a way that you easily can retrieve the given sources. Here you will find examples of how references should be given.
• A scholarly article is structured and organized. It has good illustrations and clear figure texts and tables with text where necessary. Scholarly articles are often built on the IMRAD structure: Introduction, Method, Result, and Discussion.
• A scholarly article always has a good abstract that provides a description of the article’s content. The abstract is given at the top of the article, often in smaller font size.
• It must be clear where the article has been published. In what book or journal is the article found, and where in the publication? Note that the pages must be numbered.
• Modern articles should have a DOI (Direct Object Identifier). A DOI is used to locate an article online.
• It might be a good idea to consider how you located the article. Do you trust the webpage where the article was published? There are a number of journals that are published by questionable publishers. Read more here. Did you use a search engine like Google/Bing? If yes, you should check it thoroughly.
• Academic libraries’ webpages are good portals to high-quality information. You can also trust recommendations from your supervisor, or a referral from another peer-reviewed article.

Does the article follow the standard research design?

Scholarly articles are often built around the IMRAD structure: Introduction, Method, Result And Discussion

A Scholarly article should have:

• information about which journal the article has been published in
• clear title
• information about who the author is
• a good abstract
• description of methodology
• description of results
• good discussion
• clear figures and tables with text
• conclusion
• citations and bibliography
• good, objective language
• clear page numbers

Considering non-scholarly articles

Journal articles published outside the academic realm may also contain scientific information and news. These articles tend to be of a popular science style, and written to reach a wide range of readers. Hence, they are not as detailed and well-documented. Examples of this are journals like Geo, Sykepleien, Fontene, and similar. Such articles should be assessed with other criteria than a scholarly article.

Does the source show that it is based on research? A scientific source will always contain information about the research it is built on. Treat the source with caution if no such information is provided. The bibliography will give the reader a brief overview and determines to what degree relevant research is included. Bibliography and in-text citations add to the credibility of sources.

Reliable sources should be written without errors and typos, where central concepts are used consistently and correctly. The reliability is reduced in cases where the language is poor, and the use of concepts appears to be random.

A source published through a trusted publisher will give it greater credibility. Check previous publications from the publisher, reviews, and if they are affiliated with e.g. a university.
If the book is published on a trusted publisher, it will add to the book’s source value. Is the publisher associated with an academic institution like a university?

Evaluating the relevance of the source is important when you consider using it. The information should be up to date and current.

Sources may become outdated. If you are going to rely on research results, they should have been published within a certain timeframe, dependent on the field of research. In fields such as medical research and information technology, information sources become outdated more rapidly than in other fields.

In most cases, you would want to retrieve the most recent information – use the last and updated versions of sources if, for instance, you are looking for facts or statistical data.

Keep in mind that older sources of information may also be relevant in certain academic fields. If you are looking for information about historical conditions, you may consider using sources close to the event of interest.  Some sources are considered seminal, and their recognition within the academic field is close to being timeless. Aristotle, Newton, Kant, and Einstein are examples of renowned authors that will be counted as relevant and safe sources to rely on, independent of time. Likewise, some research reports have a status as being seminal: The Milgram-experiment, The Rosenthal-effect, Semmelweis’ discoveries, and several others. Piaget and Vygotsky are examples of renowned theorists who have developed theories and concepts upon which contemporary knowledge is constructed. In such cases, older sources would be of relevance.

Academic articles and books are published by scientists to make research visible. Academic articles are often published in academic journals with responsible publishers, but may also be part of an anthology (a collection of articles with editors).

There are various requirements for an academic source. A scientific source is quality-assured by peer-reviewing. That means that one or more researchers within the same area of research read and approves the content before it is published. You will find information about the publisher’s peer-reviewing procedures on their webpage.

You may limit your results to peer-reviewed material only when you search library databases.

You have to consider whether you are informed of facts and well-documented research. The author may wish to convince you or sell you something. Beware of great words such as: the best, the fastest, the most reliable, the safest, the greatest, the biggest and last, but not least: all research shows that…

Sources are often divided into primary and secondary. Some coursebooks are examples of secondary sources since they provide an overview of current research. As a rule of thumb, you should find and refer to the primary source.

Sometimes information is copied from one source to another. The original source may not be cited and the content can have been altered. Hence, topics can be decontextualized, and presented in a manner that promotes certain viewpoints. The presentation could thus be distorted and lead to misinterpretations.

Translated sources may contain errors. If possible, use and refer to the original source.