Quick tips on choosing better sources for academic papers.

1. What Not to Cite
Selecting Good Sources

2. What makes a good source?
● published in scholarly/academic journal
● peer or expert-reviewed
● primary
● cites other good sources
● not selling anything (can be tricky)

3. "They can't put anything on the
Internet that isn't true."

4. What makes a bad source?
● unsubstantiated "opinion"
● secondary source or appearing out of
context
● no independent review
● no identified sources
● no author name
● selling something
● crowdsourced
● not relevant to the subject of your research

5. Avoid these guys
● Encyclopedias (Britannica, etc.)
● Wikipedia
● Dictionaries
● Google Search (or Bing, or Yahoo)
● About.com and similar sites
● Personal blogs
● Retailer websites/sales copy
● Textbooks
● Anthologies (quotes, literature reviews)
● Any information (especially stats) from a source you
can't identify

6. Except when...
● Under very limited circumstances, it *may* be
acceptable to cite from wiki, blogs, etc.
● Mass Media Exception
○ These circumstances relate to meta-analysis of
media or popular culture
○ In general, you don’t use the actual material, just the
volume or context
○ 99.99% certain this exception won’t apply to you in
your MBA program

7. Where the scholarly things are
● Use Wikipedia, Google Scholar, and
anthologies as a starting point
● Check references of books and articles to
find their sources
● Library databases
● Scholarly journals and trusted trade press
● Mass media (used sparingly)
● When in doubt, just ask

8. A word on plagiarism:
DON'T
(We're not being cute. You can get
booted for this.)