Chapter 2: Researching With Integrity
Finding Reputable Sources
With so many sources available, the question usually is not whether sources exist for your project but which ones will best meet your information needs. Being able to categorize a source helps you understand the kind of information it contains, which is a big clue to (1) whether might meet one or more of your information needs and (2) where to look for it and similar sources.
A source can be categorized by asking the following questions:
- Why was the source created?
- How will you use the source?
- Who was the original audience of the source?
- What format is the source in?
As you may already be able to tell, sources can be in more than one category at the same time because the categories are not mutually exclusive.
The Purpose of the Source
When you encounter a source, you should ask yourself, “Why does this source exist?” Thinking about the reason an author produced a source can be helpful to you because that reason was what dictated the kind of information they chose to include. Depending on that purpose, the author may have chosen to include factual, analytical information. Or, instead, it may have suited their purpose to include information that was meant to be entertaining. The author’s reason for producing the source also determined whether they included more than one perspective or just their own.
Authors typically want to:
• Inform and educate
• Persuade
• Sell services or products or
• Entertain
An author’s purpose can influence the kind of information they choose to include. Sometimes authors have a combination of purposes, as when a marketer decides he can sell more smart phones with an informative sales video that also entertains us. The same is true when a singer writes and performs a song that entertains us but that she intends to make available for sale.
Why Intent Matters
Authors’ intent matters because their goal will impact what information they include and how they present that information. For instance, when you’re looking for sources that will help you actually decide your answer to your research question or evidence for your answer that you will share with your audience, you will want the author’s main purpose to have been to inform or educate their audience. That’s because, with that intent, they are likely to have used:
- Facts where possible
- Multiple perspectives instead of just their own
- Little subjective information
- Seemingly unbiased, objective language that cites where they got the information
The reason you want that kind of resource when trying to answer your research question or explaining that answer is that all of those characteristics will lend credibility to the argument you are making with your project. Both you and your audience will simply find it easier to believe—will have more confidence in the argument being made—when you include those types of sources.
Sources whose authors intend only to persuade others won’t meet your information need for an answer to your research question or evidence with which to convince your audience. That’s because they don’t always confine themselves to facts. Instead, they tell us their opinions without backing them up with evidence.
It’s especially important to ask the purpose of online sources. Let’s say that you find a social media infographic about the health benefits of elderberry syrup. Someone took the time to create the post. Why did they do that work? Are they trying to sell you elderberry syrup or are they from a government health organization trying to combat misinformation about health supplements? The difference will tell you whether you can trust the source.
Who Was the Intended Audience?
We can also categorize information by the expertise of its intended audience. Considering the intended audience–how expert one has to be to understand the information—can indicate whether the source has sufficient credibility and thoroughness to meet your needs. When you’re writing papers in university, academic articles are usually the best source. In the workplace, however, you may be researching something that doesn’t have many peer-reviewed articles about it yet or you may only need a basic understanding of the topic.
There are varying degrees of expertise:
Popular – Popular newspaper and magazine articles (such as The National Post, Maclean’s Magazine, and Rolling Stone) are meant for a large general audience, generally affordable, easy to purchase or available for free. They are written by staff writers or reporters for the general public.
Professional – Professional magazine articles (such as Plastic Surgical Nursing and Music Teacher) are meant for people in a particular profession, often accessible through a professional organization. Staff writers or other professionals in the targeted field write these articles at a level and with the language to be understood by everyone in the profession.
Additionally, they are:
- About trends and news from the targeted field, book reviews, and case studies.
- Often less than 10 pages, some of which may contain footnotes and references.
- Usually published by professional associations and commercial publishers
- Published after approval from an editor.
Scholarly – Scholarly journal articles (such as Plant Science and Education and Child Psychology) are meant for scholars, students, or the general public who want a deep understanding of a problem or issue. Researchers and scholars write these articles to present new knowledge and further understanding of their field of study.
Additionally, they are:
- Where findings of research projects, data and analytics, and case studies usually appear first.
- Often long (usually over 10 pages) and always include footnotes and references.
- Usually published by universities, professional associations, and commercial publishers.
- Published after approval by peer review or from the journal’s editor.
The most-respected scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that other experts in their field check out each article before it can be published. It’s their responsibility to help guarantee that new material is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the articles contribute to the field.
Peer-reviewed articles are more likely to be credible. Peer-reviewed journal articles are the official scholarly record, which means that if it’s an important development in research, it will probably turn up in a journal article eventually.
Conducting Effective Online Searches
The Internet is filled with sources: some of them useful, some of them not. Watch this short video to learn how to effectively find information on a search engine such as Google.
Finding Scholarly Articles
Most scholarly articles are housed in specialized databases. Libraries (public, school, or company) often provide access to scholarly databases by paying a subscription fee for patrons.
Databases that aren’t subject-specific are called general databases. Google Scholar is a free general scholarly database available to all who have access to the Internet.
Searching Databases
Sometimes, a little knowledge about how to do precise searches can save you a lot of time. To find relevant sources when searching Google or a research database you should.
- Identify the main concepts in your research question. Stick to nouns. For example, if your research question was “How are students affected by the Vancouver Housing Crisis?” your main concepts would be ‘housing crisis’ and ‘students.’
- Find related search terms. You might choose to use a thesaurus for this. For example, you might search for “affordability crisis” or (if you have discovered that some students have faced homelessness because they were unable to afford a place to live) “homelessness” or “housing vulnerability.”
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When searching in databases (or Google) us quotation marks around phrases to make your search more specific. For example, you would search for “common cold” so you don’t get info on cold war or cold weather.
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Use wildcard and truncation symbols to broaden your search. For example, if you type “wom?n” into a search engine, it will show results for “woman’ and “women.” If you type “mathemat*” into a search engine, it will show results for both “mathematician” and “mathematics.”
- Use phrases like “and” and “not” to make your search more specific. For example, if you were searching a job board to try to find a job as a network administrator, but you kept finding positions as a network manager, you might search for “network administrator NOT manager.”
News as a Source
News sources can provide insights that scholarly sources may not or that will take a long time to get into scholarly sources. For instance, news sources are excellent for finding out people’s reactions, opinions, and prevailing attitudes around the time of an event.
When Are News Sources Helpful?
- You need breaking news or historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time).
- You need to learn more about a culture, place, or time period from its own sources.
- You want to keep up with what is going in the world today.
When Are News Sources of Limited Use?
- You need very detailed analysis by experts.
- You need sources that must be scholarly or modern views on a historical topic.
Other Types of Sources
News articles are typically written by journalists who are experts in investigating and get paid for their work. Usually, journalists will work with an editor to make sure that their work is accurate and fair. Depending on your topic, however, you might seek sources such as:
- Social media posts: Sometimes, experts in a subject will engage in public scholarship over Twitter or social media platforms. For example, professional historians will often share their work with the public on Twitter by relating current events to historical moments. The benefit of this type of scholarship is that it can be very current, and you can often see different scholars interact with one another. The downside is, however, that this information hasn’t been vetted by anyone. You may be witnessing an expert’s “rough draft” thoughts, and they might change their mind based on new information or the peer review process. To know if you should trust a social media post, you’ll also have to know a lot about who’s posting and if they’re credible.
- Blog posts: Though blogging is less popular now than it once was, blogs are still a great way to find out current information about a topic in a format that’s more detailed than social media allows for. For example, a cybersecurity expert might tweet about a new threat, but they might then write a blog post that outlines their concerns more explicitly and provides extensive proof. Remember that blogs are not vetted by an editor, and often bloggers have a motivation to sell products or services.
- Archives: If your topic involves the past, you might check out an archive. Many museums make their collections available online through archives. The B.C. Archives offers maps, photographs, letters and much more.
