Evaluating Resources

To evaluate resources, you will need to ask yourself what types of sources your assignment or research criteria is asking you to include. For example, do you need to use secondary sources? Do you need to use scholarly sources only? 

Once you have worked out what sources you need to include and have located them, the next step is to evaluate these resources. You will do this by asking yourself questions about the resource’s authority, currency, relevancy, objectivity, and purpose. Once you have considered these questions, you can use them to decide if the resource is a reputable and quality source to use in your assignment or research.

Below is information to help you determine if a resource is a primary source, secondary source, or tertiary source.

A primary source is a resource that contains an original idea or research. Examples of primary sources include: 

• Diaries and letters;
• Films;
• Legislation and law reports;
• Standards;
• Statistical data.

A secondary source is a resource that analyses, interprets, and discusses information that comes from primary sources. Examples of secondary sources include: 

• Literature reviews;
• Newspaper articles;
• Textbooks.

A tertiary source is a resource that combines, condenses, and then summarises information on a topic from both primary and secondary sources. Examples of tertiary sources include: 

• Dictionaries and encyclopædias;
• Directories;
• Handbooks;
• Indexes and bibliographies.

Below is information to help you determine if a resource is a scholarly source or non-scholarly source.

A scholarly source is a resource written by scholars/academics or a professional in the field. They are written to share research findings. They are also published to promote that research and generate academic discussion amongst scholars/academics. Examples of scholarly sources include: 

• Articles published in peer reviewed journals.
• Books written by academics and published by a university press.

In comparison, a non-scholarly source is written either to:

• Inform or entertain the public (known as popular sources);
• Or allow practitioners to share industry, practice, and production information (known as professional/trade sources).

Examples of non-scholarly sources include:

• Popular sources- A magazine article in the Time magazine.
• Professional/trade sources- A trade journal.

Websites are useful for providing up-to-the minute news and information about current events, trends, and controversial topics. Websites can also contain other helpful resources such as open access books and journal articles, maps, videos, government publications, company information, and general information.

Websites can also have their disadvantages:

• Anyone can publish anything on the web and this means website information may be inaccurate or biased.
• Some website content can also be outdated.
• There is also a limited amount of scholarly information that is openly available on the web.

Use of website content should be part of a balanced research strategy, which includes a range of different sources including books and journal articles (some of which can be accessed via open access websites). Websites are particularly useful for government publications, company information and general information.

Authority refers to how experienced and knowledgeable the author is on the topic. It also refers to the reliability of the publisher.

• Is the author’s name, affiliation, and credentials listed?
• Is the author an expert in the field that the resource is written on?
• Has the author written other publications? Are those publications written in the same field or another field?
• If the resource was published, what are the publisher’s credentials? Are they a recognisable publisher?
• If the resource is a website, who owns that website?
• In the case of a website, what type of domain does it use? (e.g. .gov.au, .edu.au, .org.au, .com.au)
• Does the resource contain multiple spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and referencing errors?

Currency refers to whether a resource contains up-to-date and current information.

• Is the information current and up-to-date? Do you require up-to-date information for your research?
• If applicable, when was the resource last reviewed and updated?
• Have you been asked to find sources from a specific date range (e.g. in the last 10 years)?
• Or have you been asked to find sources that were created during a specific period (e.g. poetry from the romantic period).

Relevancy refers to whether a resource is relevant to your research question or topic.

• Does the resource give you the information you need to answer your question or topic?
• If you need information about a specific country or area, does the resource focus on this?

Objectivity refers to whether a resource is accurate and balanced.

• Was the resource written using emotional language?
• Does the resource present opposing or one-sided viewpoints?
• Does the resource contain prejudice, stereotypes, deception, or manipulation?
• Is there any cultural points of view that might be present?
• Is the author trying to sell you a product or idea?
• Is the resource (especially journal articles) edited or peer-reviewed? You can find out if a resource is peer reviewed within Library Search by looking for the purple peer reviewed icon.
• Does the resource include a reference list or bibliography? Does this reference list or bibliography contain scholarly sources? 
• Is there graphs or tables of data that indicate the author did their own primary research? 

Purpose refers to what a resource is trying to achieve and who the resource was created for.

• Who is the intended audience of the resource? Is the resource for the general public, an academic audience, or practitioners?
• What age group is the resource for?
• Is the resource designed to inform, explain, or supply facts and data? Or is it designed to promote, sell, disclose, entice, or rant?

Also called refereed, peer reviewed means that a resource (usually journal articles) has gone through the peer review process. The peer review process is a quality check that is done before the article is published.

Peer reviewed articles are:

• Written by a qualified expert (usually an academic).
• Reviewed by an editor and one or more subject matter specialists (“peers”) before it is published.
• Then published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Author affiliation is a formal way of saying that an author belongs to an institution. For example, if your lecturer wrote an article, his or her author affiliation would be listed as CQUniversity.

You may notice that websites contain an .gov, .gov.au, .edu, .edu.au, .org, .org.au, com, or .com.au within their URL. These are called domains. 

Domains help determine what type of site a website is.

• For government websites, the .gov or gov.au domain is used.  
• For educational websites, the .edu or .edu.au domain is usually used. An exception may be British Universities which use .ac.uk. 
• For non-profit organisations, the .org or org.au domain is used.
• For businesses and personal websites, the .com or .com.au domain is used.
• For any Australian websites, the .au domain will be used. 
• There are also other domains which websites can use. 

Knowing the type of site can be helpful when trying to locate a specific resource from the web (e.g. a government publication from a government website) or determining if the information you found is appropriate for your assignment or research. 

Wikipedia can be used to help you brainstorm ideas for your assignments and research but as a source it isn’t credible as Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone at any time and may contain false or misleading information.

ChatGPT or other generative AI pull information from multiple sources together to generate content. However, the content that ChatGPT and other AI create is not always guaranteed to generate accurate, up-to-date information and correct referencing. ChatGPT can make up references and information that seem legitimate but are not. 

In saying this, the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI will depend on your unit requirements and University policy. You will want to check these requirements and policy for what is and isn’t allowed in regard to the use of generative AI. If unsure, ask your unit coordinator.

If you are allowed to use generative AI as part of your unit, you will want to double check any sources that generative AI has used to ensure the legitimacy of the content and sources that the generative AI has produced and used. Make sure to check the authority, currency, relevancy, objectivity, and purpose of all sources. You will also want to check that any claims or ideas that have been made within the content are referenced.

For help with referencing AI generated content, see the Academic Learning Centre’s Referencing page on MyCQU.