FIRE120: FIRE Semester I

For most academic work, you'll be looking at scholarly sources. However, there are other kinds of sources that can help you when you're researching. Here is a break down of these sources to help you figure out what you've found when researching:

• Scholarly Sources are written by experts for experts, expands knowledge of a field with original research, and are usually peer-reviewed before publication and have citations and references to other works. These sources include scholarly journals, peer-reviewed articles, and academic books.
• Popular Sources are written by authors who may or may not be experts, used to inform the general public about an issue and can include resources like magazines, newspapers, or blogs, among others. 
• Trade Sources are specialized popular publications for a particular industry that are written for people in that field and can include promotional materials, information about specific products, and news in the field.

Evaluating your sources is crucial before including them in your research. Before you use source (regardless of the source type), ask yourself:

Who is the author?

• What is their background? How does it make them an authoritative voice on this topic?
• Is the source affiliated with an organization? What can you find out about them?
• What kind of bias could the author have? Do they have a stake in this information?

Where is the source published?

• Where was the source published? Is it in a scholarly journal, a newspaper, website, government document, etc.?
• What is the reputation of the publication? Do they have any known biases that might influence the source?

When was the source published?

• Is your source recent enough to be relevant to your research? Is this the most recent information on your topic?
• Could the date of the source influence the information? Is any of the information outdated?

Why was the source published?

• What is the purpose of the source? Does the source's purpose impact the argument?

Where did the author get their information?

• In a scholarly source, you can check the citations / bibliography / works cited / references to see where the researchers got their information. 
• In popular sources, you may have to look a little harder.
  • Often newspaper and online articles will provide hyperlinks within the text to other reports or articles that the author references. Check these out! Do you see any red flags?
  • Pay attention to the sources that are cited. Who's viewpoint is being represented?

What about website domains?

• Many of us have been taught to evaluate sources based on the website domain (.com, .org, .edu, .gov, etc.).
• Domain names only tell you the type of organization responsible for the source. Domain names should not be used alone to gauge credibility.
• Keep in mind 
• that many scholarly source vendors host their collections on .com websites. Even if your domain name includes a .com, you could be looking at a scholarly source.
• Likewise, the homepage for UMD (umd.edu) has a .edu domain name, but this home page is not a scholarly source. Websites with .edu domain names simply denote that a university, college, or educational institution claims responsibility for the content.
• All sources from the U.S. government will have a .gov domain name, but not all government sources are equal. A government report with data and conclusions may suit your needs better than a general website page.