Who is the author, publisher, or sponsor?

What are the author's credentials?

Is the author qualified to write on the topic?

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address?

Does it relate to your topic or answer your question?

Is the language level appropriate (e.g., not too technical)?

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?

Are there spelling, grammar, or typographical errors?

Do the authors offer evidence to support claims they make?

Has the information been peer-reviewed?

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? Examples: .com .edu .gov .org .net

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?

When was it published or posted?

Does the date influence its usefulness?

Has the information been revised or updated?

Does your topic require current information, or will older sources work as well?

Are the links functional?

Does it inform, sell, entertain, or persuade?

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?

Is it fact, opinion, or propaganda?

Who is the intended audience?

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?

Titles of scholarly articles are usually longer than those in popular journals. They use clear, specific language to let you know exactly what the article is about. Scholarly articles often have subtitles to give even more clarity.

The author(s) of a scholarly article are listed along with their institutional affiliation. A title may also be given (Associate Professor, Division Chair, etc.). If a short biography is not included, you at least have enough information to check their credentials on the web.

An abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the article. You may use an abstract to determine if the article is relevant to your topic without having to read the entire article first.

This section states the reason for the research and provides some background about the issue being studied, including a review of the existing research.

This describes how the research was conducted, including how data was collected and analyzed.

Here, the author states the findings of their research. Graphs and tables may be used to present quantitative data.

In the discussion, the author analyzes the results and draws conclusions. This is the meat of the article, for this is where the scholar is contributing new knowledge to the area of study.

This is a bibliographical listing of all the sources of information the author cited in the paper. The reference list is an extremely valuable tool when you need to look for more sources relevant to the topic. When evaluating an article, look to see that the references are robust and drawn from a variety of sources.

A book's full title appears on the title page.

The back side of the title page is called the copyright page. The copyright page contains:

• the copyright date, or publishing date
• the publisher name
• the location of the publisher

The table of contents at the front of the book will give you a good idea of what the book covers and how it is organized.

Often the introduction section will explain the contents in more detail and include historical background on the topic.

At the back of the book, the index helps you find specific names or topics in the book that may not be listed in the table of contents.

The bibliography contains references, or citations, to the sources of information that the authors used, so that readers can find the sources themselves.