We all encounter more information in our daily lives that ever before in human history, but not all information is useful in every context or even accurate. It is important to look at any information you encounter either in print or online with a critical eye. In a research context, you should be evaluating information a few different ways: 

• Is this information useful in answering my research question or supporting my topic?
• Is this information from a source that fits the requirements of my assignment? Is it scholarly?
• What is the level of bias in this information and how can I account for it? 
• Is this source timely and current? 

When you are conducting research, you are joining the scholarly conversation around your topic and by having useful, appropriate, and accurate information you are showing your audience that you understand the existing conversation, but also have something to say yourself that is worth listening to. 

There is no such thing as a bias free source, all sources whether created by people directly, or utilizing AI technology, have a level of bias. This is not a bad thing! We only have access to our own view of the world and that shapes the information we create and publish, but authors creating high quality sources work to minimize or acknowledge their biases. Your goals when utilizing sources in your own research is to find sources with a lower level of bias or if they contain a significant level of bias, find additional sources that contain a lower level of bias but say the same thing. 

When considering the bias of a source there are a few things to think about:

• Does the author disclose any funding they may have received to create this source or the research in it? 
• Who is the publisher of this source? Is it an academic or professional organization? If it is not, are they transparent about how they are funded?
• What is the motivation of the author or publisher when creating this source? Is it to inform or is it to persuade or a mix?
• Is the publisher a source known to have a high level of bias? Check out this interactive media bias chart to help with this.
• Is this just the author's opinion or are they providing sound evidence for their claims from sources with low bias?

Not every source you find using library resources is considered scholarly and sometimes it can be hard to tell in the library databases. Scholarly sources are important for academic assignments because they have been created by experts in a field of study and have been "peer reviewed" which means a group of other scholars in that field have verified the accuracy and quality of the research before it was published. 

If a result in your search is labeled with "peer reviewed" or "academic journal" or "scholarly article", that is going to be a scholarly source. Not all databases have these labels, however so you will need to know how to analyze the source and make that determination.

How to Determine if a Source is Scholarly

When trying to decide if a source is scholarly or not, it is important to think about multiple aspects of the source before coming to a decision. Below are categories with specific criteria you should consider when making your determination. 

Author

• Are the authors' names present?
• Can you locate the authors' credentials?
• Are the authors' credentials relevant to the information included in the source?

Audience

• Who is the intended audience?
• Is the source's language for a more general audience or people with expert knowledge in a specific area?

Publisher

• Who is the publisher?
• Is the publisher a university or research institution? Is the publisher a professional or scholarly organization?
• Can you determine the publisher's purpose for providing information? 

Content

• Are there sources cited within the source?
• Are there relevant charts, graphs, and tables?
• Are the conclusions posed based on evidence provided throughout?
• Is the source long enough to provide an argument, evidence, and conclusions?

Adapted from "Determine if a Source is Scholarly" by Teaching Learning Academic Support at the Main Library-- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign