Any time you complete research for an assignment, you will need to consider the credibility of your outside sources. Oftentimes the type of source you decide to look at will tell you a lot about how reliable it is.
The four most common source types for academic research are:
Scholarly Articles are peer-reviewed works written by experts in a variety of fields. They are the most credible source type available to students and can be accessed with relative ease through the Academic Search Premier tool located in a box below. You can also use Opposing Viewpoints and Academic OneFile.
Opposing Viewpoints is a Gale database with full-text articles and multimedia that explore both sides of controversial issues.
Academic OneFile is a Gale database providing content from scholarly articles, magazines, and reference books.
Google is a natural language search and retrieval tool. This means that results are often irrelevant, imprecise, and have not been evaluated for accuracy or authority by any scholarly community.
To limit your results to academic, organizational, and government websites, be sure to add one of the following to your search:
When using Google Scholar, remember that not all seemingly academic publications are peer-reviewed or authoritative in a given field. Use critical thinking and good judgment when finding sources through Google Scholar.
