Chapter 4 Research UP B Class

Finding Credible Sources Not all information your find is true Steps for Examining Sources: 1- The author’s credentials: personal experiences or academic qualifications. 2- associations or affiliations: the author or publisher. 3- any noticeable bias from the source: Finding unbiased sources is nearly impossible, question the information 4-Does the author cite any sources? Make sure the sources stand up to scrutiny 5- Date of source: Check the dates on any source

Finding Credible Sources 6-Incomplete or abridged: missing information or out of context 7- Reviews or Endorsement: positive reviews or endorsements 8- Reputable source: If it is reputable, then using this source is safe. 9- Loaded or vague terms: avoid sources that use terms like “many people believe” 10- Ulterior motive or agenda

Evaluating for Areas of Bias All sources will be biased in some way Each person has a perspective that influences the way they present their information Just because something is biased does not mean it’s not useful

Steps for Evaluating Bias Primary or Secondary sources Author admits to the bias Author might admit to their bias As long at it is recognized, the source is still useful Bias help support paper Some biases can be beneficial to research Source purposefully misleading Avoid sources that are vague, misleading, or incomplete

Other Things to Consider Consider the type of source that will be most useful Might be a wide range of books or journals on your topic Think about the appropriateness of a particular source Too informal or too formal  inappropriate sources Ask for help!

Using the Library Best place to start a Research paper Librarian’s and assistants: Librarians help in finding the sources for the students Types of sources available: Internet research Books, periodicals, journals Large quantities of quality unbiased sources

Using the Library Come up with some key words or phrases and write down the name of book and location in the library Use synonyms for key words too Pick up the key topics that suits for a research paper For long research paper : Encyclopedias , and various reference books are used Find for the narrower results that suits specific topic

Periodicals News papers, magazines, and journals are examples for periodicals. These help to find out the topic very quickly and more specifically Periodicals are replaced with online databases because they are updated and can search larger quantity of information

Using Online Library Databases. Online library databases are the best sources of articles. It`s similar to searching the internet for information. Find excerpts from books and other sources on these databases. Academic databases are different from generic search engines.

How to select and search online databases. The library has information about how to access the online databases . If you don`t find this information, ask a librarian for information about the online databases. In most cases, you will find the list of databases in a computer in the library.

How to select and search online databases. To make the best use of these databases there are steps during your search: Find databases pertaining specifically to your topic, if possible. Set up the search parameters within the database to be as narrow as possible. Slowly expand your search to get additional results. Move to the next database or a more general database in needed.

Find databases pertaining specifically to your topic, if possible. Check the brief overview. Ask a librarian. Ask your professor for recommendations.

Set up the search parameters within the database to be as narrow as possible. To get the most pertinent information Determine which options are available. Include articles within a specific date range.

Slowly expand your search to get additional results. Your specific search will return few results. These results will be easier to sift through and will be current and applicable. If you don`t enough sources, start to expand you’re the types of journals.

Move to the next database or a more general database in needed. If you have a thoroughly searched one database. You can move to another to find more or better results. Different databases can present different jornals and archives.

Using the Internet Types of extensions for websites: 1. com: for commercial business or group. 2. net: means network and its use is for information technology. 3. org: organization, used for personal websites and nonprofits organization. 4. edu: for educational. 5. gov: for government.

Why Wikipedia is not safe source? Anonymous online community of users runs Wikipedia Wikipedia is often criticized for containing bias Having spoof articles Lacking citations

Wikipedia DO: Check images, graphs and others figures, they can be useful Check to see if the article has been flagged for any issues Examine the sources listed at the bottom of the article DON’T: Treat Wikipedia as scholarly source Quote or paraphrase Wikipedia in a paper Accept everything written on Wikipedia as true

Using Blog Resource Internet specific rules to keep in mind while evaluating potential online sources 1.Check the authorship of online information. 2. Look for the date the website was last updated. Try to verify any credentials an author claims to have. Check for citations when they seem necessary.