Selecting Appropriate Sources

Introduction

Whether you’re a student, employee, or lifelong learner, using the appropriate sources to support your contributions is essential. With so much information available online, how do you navigate the digital landscape to locate the most relevant and reliable information? Use your information need as your guide. What types of information are required to answer your research question or explore your area of interest? Analyzing your information need will help you identify the key themes, terms, and perspectives associated with your question. These details will help you locate the most appropriate sources. During your search for information, you will encounter a range of digital sources like blogs, subscription materials, online encyclopedias, archived information, news, and more. All sources you consider using in your research must be evaluated for quality, trustworthiness, and relevance. Keep in mind that your information needs will evolve as you build your understanding of the topic. This tutorial will help you identify your information need, get familiar with the types of digital sources available, and select the most relevant sources to fulfill that particular need.

Identifying Your Information Need

The first step of identifying your information need is to specify your question or area of interest. In some cases, your research topic will be provided to you by your instructor. You might begin by breaking down your topic into its key elements. These descriptors will help you narrow in on sources that address your topic. Imagine you are writing an article for your school paper on the impacts of a recent policy allowing students and faculty to nominate books to be banned from campus libraries. What information would you need to educate your readers on the topic? To write a compelling article, you would require information to explore...

• Why the policy was enacted
• What the policy entails
• Who is affected

Identifying the Appropriate Sources

Once you have broken down your research question into focused topics, you can begin locating the sources that will help you address each topic.

See how your questions related to banned books can be matched to source types.

NOTE: Keep in mind that not every source will address your topic in full; you likely will need to visit multiple sources to discern the big picture. For example, an opinion piece may highlight the advantages of the policy if the source or its author will benefit from its enactment. In this and any other case, other sources will be required to gather additional perspectives.

Types of Sources: Background

So far we have discussed using your information need to identify the key topics associated with your question or area of interest. The following pages will walk you through the types of sources you might use during the different stages of exploration. Remember that your information need itself will change depending on where you are in the research process, and so may the type of sources you require. When beginning to explore your topic, you likely will require background sources to answer the key questions related to your topic (who, what, when, where, why, how?). Background sources provide you with a general understanding of your topic. Think of online encyclopedia entries or overview articles. Sites like Google or Wikipedia may be useful for obtaining background information on your area of interest. You then can use these sources to locate additional or in-depth information.

TIP: Wikipedia relies on user-generated edits and information. Often, Wikipedia is not considered an authoritative source to cite in your academic or professional work. However, it may be a useful place for acquiring background knowledge and links to authoritative sources where you may find additional information to verify your findings. It’s important to confirm information you find on Wikipedia by visiting the original source to locate the most reliable facts to cite in your work.

Types of Sources: In-Depth

Once you are familiar with the essentials of your topic, in-depth sources will help you explore further and incorporate evidence to support your ideas. In-depth sources explore a topic in detail, often by discussing a particular aspect of a larger topic from a specific point of view. In-depth sources also are useful places to locate analysis, quotes, and data. For example, an overview article describing the history of banned books would build on your background knowledge on related issues like censorship, education, morals, and access to information. An in-depth source like a feature article or government report might include data on the number of banned books, frequently banned titles, and perspectives from librarians or students.

The Open and Hidden Web

Individuals, groups, and organizations can access or publish information on the open web. Think of blogs, social media, company websites, and news or e-commerce sites. The hidden web is a term that describes information only accessible with the proper credentials: information provided to students and faculty of a specific university, for example, or news and scholarly articles available only to subscribers. You might use these types of sources for background information or to glean evidence to support your research. Depending on your information need, you may require sources from both the open and hidden web.

NOTE: One advantage to using these types of sources is the fact that many of the resources have undergone peer review, the process of subject experts evaluating scholarly work to ensure its quality and prevent plagiarism. Peer-reviewed works often are required in class assignments. Your ability to incorporate high-quality evidence and evaluate the opinions of experts demonstrates your understanding of the trends and theories associate with your research topic.

Locating Reliable Sources for Your Information Need

Once you have located a source that meets your information need, you should take time to assess the reliability of the source. Imagine you have encountered a source that seems to support your information need exactly. You may be tempted to stop your information search and use this source in your project. Before you decide to cite the source, however, first you should evaluate the source’s credibility. Remember, it is your responsibility to back up your ideas using accurate evidence. Analyzing the source’s motives will help you identify gaps and other points of view that will contribute to your knowledge of the topic. Use these questions to get started:.

• What is the message?

• What is the source?

• Who is the author?

• What biases can you detect?

NOTE: You may need to locate additional sources to contextualize the information and get a balanced view of the topic.

Imagine you are writing a report on raising the federal minimum wage. As you explore your topic, your information need and the most relevant sources to meet that need will evolve from background sources, to in-depth sources including data, opinion, and analysis. Drag the sources from the word bank onto blank spaces that correspond with the appropriate information need.

Once you have selected the most relevant sources for your information need, you should _______.

Locating Reliable Sources for Your Information Need: Authors

Part of determining the appropriate sources for your information need involves assessing the credibility of a source’s author. Just as you may research the reputation of a brand or business, you should look into the motives and influence of digital information sources. This key step will help you maintain your own credibility as a writer or presenter. An author’s experience and qualifications, or lack thereof, will influence the quality and reliability of a source.

Locating Reliable Sources for Your Information Need: Bias

Bias occurs when an individual's preferences or ideas compromise their ability to view an issue objectively. You may come across bias in a source when the facts are presented from a particular perspective. For example, a writer opposing a certain type of literature on religious grounds may interpret the issue of banning books in school libraries through the lens of their personal values. Bias also is present in your own interpretation of information. You may be drawn to sources published by researchers from your home country, or multimedia from a source that mirrors your values and beliefs. If you find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with a source, ask yourself why. Remember, just because a source mirrors your values or beliefs does not mean the information it's presenting is the most accurate or reliable. Seeking information to support a point of view and ignoring conflicting perspectives is called conformation bias. You can avoid conformation bias by keeping an open mind and be willing to adjust your point of view based on the analysis of reliable evidence. You also should be able to analyze a source’s use of evidence critically and validate any perspectives with outside sources.

Locating Reliable Sources for Your Information Need: Considerations

Looking for sources to meet your information need can uncover many pages of search results. It can be tempting to select the first result, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed. But search results at the top of the page aren’t always the most reliable. In fact, these sources likely have been selected by an algorithm like Google’s PageRank. PageRank suggests pages with multiple links or popular pages to be placed high in search results. For this reason, you may notice some of your results recommend Wikipedia topic pages as the most relevant source to click. It is important to review your search results carefully to select the page that most likely is relevant to your information need.

TIP: It’s also important to consider the appearance of a site, but aesthetics alone should not be your guide. A site whose appearance includes a lot of ads, flashy headlines, and a lack of cited sources should raise questions about trustworthiness. However, there are sleekly designed, respectable looking sites that have hidden agendas as well. Don’t automatically assume that a professional looking website is reliable. If you’re not familiar with the source, you’ll want to dig deeper to find out about the organization, author, or publisher of the site, to learn more about what viewpoints or objectives they have.

When assessing the credibility of a source and its author, it’s important to look for bias. Bias occurs when an individual’s _______.

Conclusion

You now should be familiar with the strategies required to identify your information need and select the sources that are most appropriate to explore your research question.