1. By: Kellee Ivers
May 2012

2.  Who is the author?
 How recent is the source?
 How to evaluate internet sources?

3.  Credible sources are written by authors in their
fields of study.
 They will also site the sources.

4.  This will depend on your topic. If you have a
topic like the Civil War it will have old sources
and will still be reliable.
 However it is better if you find sources that are
10 years or less.

5.  Never use web sites where you don’t see an
author unless it is associated with a
university, government, well known non-
government organization or a credible media
organization.
 Use internet sites that end in .gov, .edu, or .org.
Those are all reliable sources.
 However there is an acceptation to the rules
with .org Wikipedia is not as a reliable source
as Encyclopedia Britannica.

6.  What does scholarly mean:
1. Concerned with academic study, especially
research
2. Exhibiting the methods and attitudes of a
scholar
3. Having the manner and appearance of a
scholar.

7.  Also called academic, peer-reviewed
 What to look for in scholarly journals:
 Abstract, always site their sources, written by
someone in their field-reliable.
 Examples of Scholarly Journals:
 Journal of American Medical Association
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/journal.aspx
 American Economic Review-
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/index.php
 Journal of Marriage and the Family- (National
Council on Family Relations) http://www.ncfr.org/

8.  The Economist- http://www.economist.com/
 National Geographic-
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
 The New York Times-
http://www.nytimes.com/
 Scientific American-
http://www.scientificamerican.com/

9.  What to look for in a general/News interest
periodicals:
 They sometimes site their sources
 They are written by a member of their staff

10.  Here is a chart that shows what the difference
between scholarly journals vs. magazines.
 http://library.ucf.edu/Reference/Guides/Sch
olarlyvPopular.asp

11.  Wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
 It is a wiki based website which means anyone can
add or change anything to this document.
 Encyclopedia Britannica-
http://www.britannica.com/
 Has real staff and good quality articles.
 Which website to you looks the most reliable?
 Does it have an author
 When was it written?
 Evaluate the source

12.  http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/researc
h/skill20.html
 http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/courses/sc
holarly1.htm
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource
/588/02/