Evaluate & Choose Quality Sources: Are my Sources of Sufficient Quality?
Peer-Reviewed, Popular…or in Between?
Questions to Ask when Evaluating Articles
| Scholarly, Peer-reviewed, Professional Journals | Popular Magazines | |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Harvard Business Review; American Journal of Sociology; Modern Language Notes |
Newsweek; Sports Illustrated; People; National Geographic; Wired |
| What is “the look”? | Somber, serious with graphs and tables. Few, if any, pictures. | Attractive, slick with lots of pictures and advertisements. |
| Who is the audience? | Other professionals in the field or discipline. Language is scholarly and subject specific. | General audience. Language relative to the topic. Articles can be short and lacking depth. |
| What is the purpose? | To report original research or experimentation or persuade based on research. |
To entertain, to sell, or to promote a viewpoint. |
| Who wrote the article? | A scholar or researcher often with an institutional or academic affiliation. |
Freelance writers, magazine staff or a well-known person not necessarily an expert in the field. |
| How carefully is it documented? | Always has references, footnotes and/or a bibliography. Follows a style like APA or MLA. | Rarely cites sources or makes broad references to sources. |
Is it peer reviewed?
This video shows you different ways to check whether an article is peer-reviewed.