With the voluminous amounts of information available these days, it is often difficult
to find the best sources for your needs. In college, this is complicated by the fact
that academic research often requires a more discriminating selection of materials.
Fortunately, most article databases today give clues in the citation details
to help you ascertain the type of source it is and whether or not it is an appropriate source.
This tutorial will help you understand the different types of sources and how to recognize
them in the article databases.
Objectives
After completing this tutorial, you should be able to:
Recognize an empirical research study
Differentiate between a quantitative and qualitative study
Define "peer-reviewed"
Differentiate between popular, trade and scholarly journals
Recognize a primary source from a secondary source
Discern scholarly/research type web sites from commercial
With the voluminous amounts of information available these days, it is often difficult
to find the best sources for your needs. In college, this is complicated by the fact
that academic research often requires a more discriminating selection of materials.
Fortunately, most article databases today give clues in the citation details
to help you ascertain the type of source it is and whether or not it is an appropriate source.
This tutorial will help you understand the different types of sources and how to recognize
them in the article databases.