After finding material on your topic, how do you decide what is the best information to use?
Magazines and journals articles will give current information because they are published more quickly than books and contain more up-to-date information.
Scholarly journal (or peer-reviewed) articles are written by scholars or professionals, experts in their fields.
Popular articles present the current culture and likes of the general public, usually meant as general interest or entertainment.
Newspapers articles are also excellent sources for current information on reports or events. Most are published daily or weekly.
When looking at an article, how can you tell if it is scholarly or a popular magazine article?
These are some of the parts to look for:
Other parts to look for are References, Abstract, Citations, short biography of the Author(s).
Look at the examples below on how identify these parts.
Magazine articles may be informative but the information is not necessarily based on in-depth research. There are still some of the same parts, such as Title of the Magazine, Title of the Article, Author (maybe), Date of Publication, and Page Numbers.
Look at the examples below and see if you can identify the difference between the scholarly journal articles and the popular magazine articles.
"One Pot Meals ..." Food Management Feb. 2010: 56. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 July 2015.
A major challenge with searching for information on the Internet is determining what is useful and what is not.
Not all web sites are truthful or reliable.
Keep in mind the following criteria (CRAAP Test) when faced with the challenge to accept or reject information:
In summary, searching in any electronic or digital environment you need to be prepared by:
1. Defining your topic and identifying your KEYWORDS.
2. The amount of information found in the results list may be overwhelming, so you will need to REFINE your search.
3. Deciding what is the right information will include EVALUATING the material.
This short video puts these steps together. It is entitled: How should I search in a database? by NEIU Ronald Williams Library.