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PLSC 210N: Rights in America

Professor Nicholas Pyeatt

Evaluating Sources

For this final project, you need to locate at least "7 high quality, reputable, and scholarly sources to support their topic."

Scholarly Sources
  • Are often defined as sources written by academics or other experts that contribute to a specific field with new findings, theories, analyses, news or summaries of contemporary knowledge. 
  • They are often peer reviewed, meaning their content went through an editorial process to make sure it was accurate, had reproducible results and includes a list of citations or a bibliography. (All peer reviewed sources are scholarly but not all scholarly sources are peer-reviewed).
  • Many of our databases can let researchers filter to just scholarly sources. 
  • Examples
    • Book published by a college or university press
    • An academic or disciplinary focused journal like The International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies or The American Journal of Political Science.

Reputable Sources 

  • Are defined as sources that have a good reputation or are viewed as trustworthy.
  • They should have some history of publication, clear availability for the credentials of the author(s) or their editorial board.