Kinesiology, Social Work, and Health Sciences Librarian
Evaluating Resources
The good folks at Vanderbilt University have put today a concise video about the differences between popular and peer-reviewed periodicals.
Watch this short video from the great folks at North Carolina State University Libraries for a clear explanation of the peer-review process.
Not sure if a journal is peer reviewed?
Look it up in Ulrich's Global Serials Directory! Search the title and then check the "Refereed" colomn to find out whether the title is a peer-reviewed journal.
- UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory This link opens in a new windowUlrichsweb.com is the authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more from around the world. And, it's easy to use!
Is everything in a peer-reviewed journal a peer-reviewed article?
So, you used the scholarly/peer-reviewed filter in your search. All of the results qualify as peer-reviewed sources, right? Wrong.
Book reviews, columns, editorials, letters to the editor, brief news items don't count as peer-reviewed articles.
There are some very basic things you should think about when you evaluate information. You probably use these criteria without realizing it, but it's good to see them spelled out.
Authority
Who wrote or created the item? Is this person an expert? What credentials does this person have?
Purpose
Is the item meant to inform, entertain, or persuade?
Scope
Does the item give surface information or does it delve deeply into a topic? Depending on your information need, an item may not be suitable if it gives you too much or too little information.
Reliability
How reliable is the source? Is it an anonymous blog, an articles in an established journal? Does it cite sources, or are statistics and facts included with no information about where these came from?
Currency
When was the item created? Outdated information isn't helpful outside of a historical context.