Before deciding whether or not to incorporate what you have found into your literature review, you need to evaluate the resources to make sure that they contain information which is valuable and pertinent. This is especially true when the resources you retrieved are not collected by an academic library, but conveniently accessible through Internet search. Web resources need more careful thought to ensure their quality. Thus it is always a good practice to begin your search using CityU LibraryFind and databases for more authoritative and reliable resources. Show
Evaluation Criteria Accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage are the five basic criteria for evaluating information from any sources.
Scholarly journals vs. non-scholarly journalsIt has been mentioned on "The Literature" page of this guide that a literature review generally consists of scholarly works. In addition to dissertations and theses, scholarly journal articles are another important sources to be incorporated in a literature review. Many Library databases contain articles of various types of periodicals, including scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. Most of these databases allow you to further limit your search results to "Scholarly Articles" so that you can view only academic research articles that in general report current original research. e.g.
The document below assists you in distinguishing scholarly journals from non-scholarly journals: Evaluate websitesBearing in mind that the Web is a vast network of unfiltered information sources, (i.e., anyone can put anything on it, bypassing editorial or peer review). It is of utmost importance that we evaluate information on the Web before it is used and cited. Here are some quick hints that can help you decide whether the information given in a particular web page is reliable or not:
Links For more about evaluating information, visit the following sites: Critically Analyzing Information Sources, from Research & Learning Serivces, Cornell University Library. Evaluating Resources, from UC Berkeley Library. Fake News, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources, from Cornell University Library. Critical readingYour literature review should be critical rather than simply descriptive. You should therefore take a critical approach when reading your sources. Refer to the "Academic Reading" page of this guide to learn more about reading skills.What are the most important factors to consider when reviewing the authorship of a source?Common evaluation criteria include: purpose and intended audience, authority and credibility, accuracy and reliability, currency and timeliness, and objectivity or bias.. Who is the author? Is it a person? ... . What are the qualifications of the author? ... . Who is the publisher?. What are the 3 most important criteria in source evaluation?Evaluate Sources With the CRAAP Test
Another way to evaluate your sources is the CRAAP Test, which means evaluating the following qualities of your sources: Currency. Relevance. Authority.
What are the 4 main criteria when evaluating resources?Relevance : the uniqueness of the content and its importance for your needs.. Authority : the source of the information.. Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information.. Purpose : the presence of bias or prejudice.. What are 3 factors you should consider when investigating a Sources authority?Where should you look to determine the authority of a source?. Examine or look up the author's credentials and affiliations.. Try to find more sources written by the author(s) and examine them - are they scholarly?. Look for the author's contact information.. Examine the publisher's credentials.. |