Navigation article:
Authority
- Who’s the writer?
- What else has got the author written?
- By which communities and contexts will the author have expertise?
- Will the author represent a specific group of world views?
- Will they represent specific gender, sexual, racial, political, social and/or cultural orientations?
- Will they privilege some causes of authority over others?
- Have they got a proper role inside a particular institution (e.g. a professor at Oxford)?
Purpose
- Why was this source produced?
- Is there a fiscal value for that author or writer?
- Could it be an academic resource? Persuasive?
- What (research) questions will it make an effort to answer?
- Will it make an effort to be objective?
- Will it fill every other personal, professional, or societal needs?
- Who’s the intended audience?
- Will it be for scholars?
- Will it be for an over-all audience?
Publication & format
- Where could it have been printed?
- Could it have been printed inside a scholarly publication, just like an journal?
- Who had been the writer? Could it have been a college press?
- Could it have been formally peer-reviewed?
- Will the publication possess a particular editorial position?
- Could it be generally regarded as a conservative or progressive outlet?
- May be the publication sponsored by others or organizations? Perform the sponsors have particular biases?
- Have there been any apparent barriers to publication?
- Could it have been self-printed?
- Have there been outdoors editors or reviewers?
- Where, geographically, could it have been initially printed, as well as in what language?
- With what medium?
- Could it have been printed online or perhaps in print? Both?
- Could it be your blog publish? A YouTube video? A TV episode? Articles from the print magazine?
- Exactly what does the medium let you know about the intended audience?
- Exactly what does the medium let you know about the objective of the piece?
Relevance
- How’s it highly relevant to your quest?
- Will it evaluate the main sources that you are researching?
- Will it cover the authors or people who you are researching, but different primary texts?
- Can you employ the authors’ frameworks of research for your own research?
- What’s the scope of coverage?
- Could it be an over-all overview or perhaps an in-depth analysis?
- Will the scope suit your own information needs?
- It’s time period and geographic region highly relevant to your quest?
Date of publication
- Just when was the origin first printed?
- What version or edition from the source are you currently talking to?
- Exist variations in editions, for example new introductions or footnotes?
- When the publication is online, just when was it last updated?
- What’s altered inside your field of study because the publication date?
- What are the printed reviews, responses or rebuttals?
Documentation
- Did they cite their sources?
- Otherwise, have you got every other way to verify the longevity of their claims?
- That do they cite?
- May be the author associated with the authors they are citing?
- Would be the reported authors a part of a specific academic movement or way of thinking?
- Look carefully in the quotes and paraphrases using their company sources:
- Did they appropriately represent the context of the reported sources?
- Did they ignore any important components using their reported sources?
- Could they be cherry-picking details to aid their very own arguments?
- Did they appropriately cite ideas which were not their very own?
Resourse: http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/