Expert Reviews & Summaries
- Annual Reviews Online This link opens in a new windowAccess journals that cover the biomedical, life, physical and social sciences.
Annual Reviews are great articles to begin reading. Likely your advisor will assign one to you to read. If not, this is where you begin to learn about some of the key journals and authors in field, then start here. Review articles are defined as articles that:
- Capture current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial;
- Set the work in historical context;
- Highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years; and
- Outline the practical applications and general significance of research to society.
Check your Bias
Measure bias of an article you read or story you heard. You can see the most reliable rated sources at the Ad Fontes Media home page or you can search and compare news sources at the interactive media bias chart.
Information Cycle
Types of Publications
Descriptions of periodicals/journals
| Examples | What you'll find | Authors | Publisher | |
|
Scholarly / Peer Reviewed Journals |
American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Experimental Psychology |
|
Researchers, academics, professors, scholars | Universities, scholarly presses, or academic / research organizations |
| Professional / Trade Journals | American Teacher, Science News |
|
Professionals in the field or journalists with subject expertise | Commercial publishers or professional/ trade associations |
| Commentary / Opinion Journals | Mother Jones, National Review, New Republic |
|
Variable: academics, journalists, spokespersons for "groups" | Commercial publishers or non-profit organizations |
| Popular Magazines | Time Newsweek People |
|
Mainly journalists, occasionally freelance journalists | Commercial publishers |
| Newspapers | New York Times Washington Post |
|
Journalists | Commercial publishers |
From Southwest Minnesota State University Library: https://www.smsu.edu/library/?id=6405 and Clark College Library: http://library.clark.edu/types_of_periodicals
Evaluate Your Sources
As you find sources and materials, keep in mind that their quality can vary. Learning how to evaluate information can not only help you succeed with your research assignment; it's also a critical life skill! Below are some tips you can use to help you become a savvy consumer and user of information.
Read laterally and get your bearings - Follow links, check out claims, see what other says, and see what you can find online. Don't just read the article straight through - lateral reading involves figuring out the context of the source and getting more background information on the article, who produced it, and what it is claiming. You can ask these questions to help you figure out more about your source.
- What are you looking at? See if you can determine what kind of source or information you are seeing.
- Who wrote this? See what you can find about the author. Check out their credentials, see what comes about them on Google. Are they qualified to talk about the topic?
- Who published this? See what you can find out about the publisher. What is their reputation? What other types of articles and content do they publish? What do other say about them online?
- Why was this written? Someone took the time to write and publish this information, so why did they? What might the goal be? Is the article trying to share information, or convince the reader to do something?
- Is this useful for your research project? An article might be credible and well-written, but it might not be what you need for your project. Make sure this information will be helpful for your project and your research needs.
For additional tips, see the Health Sciences Library's Assessing Journal Credibility list.