Now that you know how to find sources related to your research question, you must carefully evaluate them to make sure they contain reliable and appropriate information. Use the criteria in the documents on this page to help you decide.
Ask your instructor or a librarian if you have difficulty evaluating a source.
Both popular and scholarly articles can be appropriate sources for your research, and for some research projects, a combination of the two types of sources may be appropriate.
Are you looking for news, background information, or evidence of popular opinion or trends? Popular magazines or newspapers may be best.
Are you looking for research conducted by experts in the field? Use scholarly journals.
Peer review is the process by which an article submitted to a scholarly journal is reviewed by other researchers/scholars in the same field as the author (his/her peers) before it can be approved for publication. All peer reviewed (or "refereed") journals are scholarly, but not all scholarly journals are peer reviewed.
How do I know if an article is peer reviewed?
1. Most online journal article databases include a way to limit searches to peer reviewed articles.
2. The website for the journal and/or the print edition will usually indicate whether the journal is peer reviewed.