All information needs to be selected or chosen.
Evaluation occurs when the researcher selects one source over another, for a SPECIFIC REASON. You do this intrinsically when you are learning about a topic.
Computers and search engines do not make evaluative decisions, YOU do!
Information sources are NOT GOOD OR BAD…ALL information has value.
VALUE is dependent on context and is measured in light of...
Primary: a first-hand account of an event or the original report of research findings
Secondary: an account of an event from someone other than those in attendance or an analysis of a research study
Subjective: from one point of view
Objective: review of many different points of view
Learn more using the tabs on the left about the various sources.
Scholarly: created for those who study the discipline, meant to inform, create new knowledge, researched, written or created by someone who has the knowledge, education and expertise to do so
Popular: created with a general audience in mind, meant to entertain, topics of interest, not researched; written by a staff writer.
Peer reviewed (refereed) :
A process, where experts in the field read and review an artilcle in order to determine if it should be published. They check for accurcy and validity of the research and currency of topic. The Journal practices this process.
In order to tell if an article in a specific journal could be called peer reviewed, use Ulrich's to identify the journals' refereed satus (referee shirt in the second column).
Note: All peer reviewed resources are scholarly, but not all scholarly sources go through the process of peer review before they are published.