BIO 350: Advanced Molecular Genetics: What's a Good Source?

Quick checklist:

1. Who wrote this?
2. Who published this?
3. When did they publish it?
4. What's in it for them? (bias)
   
5. Can I verify it? (accuracy)
   
6. Does it work for me? (appropriateness)

Each of the boxes on this page will tell you how to apply a question to your research.

Who is/are the authors? Are they qualified to write on this topic? Are they associated with any institution that makes them more or less credible on this topic?

DO THIS: Do a quick search for an author's bio or cv (= academic resume). You can also check to see whether the author has written any other papers or books on the same topic.

Make sure websites provide you with the name of the actual author (not just the webmaster).

Can't tell who the author is? You should never use information that you can't verify in an academic paper.

DO THIS: find a description of the publisher of your book or article, or find their website. What types of things do they publish, and who is their audience?

OK to use: art history book by Yale University Press.
Why? University publishers produce academic-quality books that have been written by experts in the field, and have been fact-checked before they are published.

Questionable: book on Susan B. Anthony by Scholastic Publishing.
Why? Scholastic is actually a publisher that produces books for K-12 schools. The information in the book will be accurate, but for a college paper you can find a book that's more at your level.

Questionable: book on the Civil War published by Author House.
Why? Author House is a website that helps people self-publish: anyone can write a book and publish via Author House. No fact-checking, no guarantee of subject expertise.

Online:

• .com = business
• .org = organization
• .gov = government agency
  
• .edu = school
• .edu/~morgan = Mr. Morgan's personal page at Unnamed University.
  

DO THIS: find a date.Consider

1. whether there may be more recent information on your topic, and
2. whether it is important to your paper that you use the most recent information.

• On web pages, find the date the material was originally written, and when the page was last updated.
• Journal article in a database: make sure you know when the article was originally written (don't confuse tthat with the date it was added to the database)

Peer reviewed articles (also sometimes called refereed articles or scholarly articles) require that experts in the field must first examine the article before it is accepted for publication. This ensures that the research is sound and of high quality.

Tips for finding scholarly journals and articles:

1.    Look the title up in the Ulrich's Periodicals Directory: check the Document Type field to see if it is classified as 'academic/scholarly'.

2.    Select the Peer Reviewed box in Academic Search Complete database.

3.   Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk or at askref@hollins.edu.

DO THIS:  use information about the author and publisher to determine whether they may have a bias about your topic.

If they do, you will have to make this clear in your paper when you use any information from their writing. Consider:

• Is the information fact, or opinion?
• What is the purpose? What do the authors want to accomplish?
• Is there an implicit or explicit bias?

DO THIS:

1. check for sources. Do the authors use citations, do they provide references and/or a bibliography?

2. check a few facts from the information against a reliable encyclopedia. Good encyclopedias are Credo Reference, Oxford Reference Online, or the encyclopedias found in the library's first-floor reference section.

DO THIS: go back and read your assignment. Answer the following questions:

1. Is this information really relevant to the assingment and to my topic?
2. Is this information written at the appropriate age/knowledge level?
3. Is this information complete, or do I have to find something else to fill in gaps?

Your assignment may require you to use scholarly, or peer-reviewed, journal articles for your bibliography. What are these articles, and what makes them different from articles from magazines like Time?

• The Colbert Report: Wikiality (excerpt, Youtube)
• Send Us Your Reckons: The Value & Importance of Online Comments (excerpt from That Mitchell and Webb Look, Youtube)