Evaluating Information - PSYC 1300 - General Psychology - LibGuides at University Of Central Arkansas

Evaluate Your Sources

When you're ready to begin reading your articles, use these questions to help you determine the value of a source:

Does this help me answer my research question?
How does this source address all or part of your research topic?

Do you understand the source?
Does this source use unfamiliar terminology or jargon? Do you need any other background information in order to understand it?

Does this source follow your assignment instructions?
Make sure you know what type of source you are looking at. Newspapers and magazines are not scholarly sources; journal articles and book chapters are.

How are you going to use this source?
Does this source support your thesis, or does it provide counter-evidence that you need to address? Does it provide background information on your topic, or is it important, foundational research that your topic is based on? Will this source lead to additional information?

RADAR

Evaluate your sources using the RADAR approach:

R	A	D	A	R
Rationale	Authority	Date	Accuracy	Relevance
What is the purpose of this source? Does the author use objective or emotional language? Is there an obvious or ambiguous bias?	What are the author's credentials? Is this author affiliated with an educational institution or a well-known organization? Is source peer-reviewed? If not, does it come from a well-known, reputable publisher?	When was the information published? Is there newer information available that may refute this information?	Can the statements made by the author(s) be verified in another source? What statements do other sources make on this topic? Is there some agreement between sources? How was this source fact-checked or reviewed? (Peer-review, editorial review, etc.)	How does this source support your thesis? Do you understand the source? Is it too technical? Is it overly simplified? Does the source add something new to your understanding or to your research question?

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Did you know: You can determine if an article is useful without reading the whole thing.* Just follow the steps below.

Read the abstract
Next read the discussion and/or the conclusion; this will give you a good overview of the researchers' findings
If you are still interested, read the introduction and skim the method and results sections for finer details and clarifications
Finally, read the literature review and bibliography, looking for foundational works or other sources that may help your own research
Once you've determined the article is useful, go back and re-read the article in chronological order

*You will eventually need to read the entire article before citing it in your paper