How do you know whether your research has
turned up sources that are “authoritative”?
That is to say: credible, objective, and trustworthy.
What makes a given publication “authoritative,”
in the academic context?
In this video, you will learn how to
recognize the elements that signal academic
authority in a publication, such as author’s
qualifications, publisher, references, and
peer review, and
assess whether your sources’ date of publication
reflects the needs of your research topic
You can evaluate whether a source is academically
reliable by focusing your attention on the
following features that signal academic authority
in a source.
Author’s Qualifications
Are they affiliated with a university or research
institution?
Do they hold a PhD in a relevant discipline?
Do they have other relevant publications?
Is their work cited by other scholars?
You can check who is citing their work in
Scopus or Google Scholar.
Publisher
Is the publisher a university press or a research
institution?
Is it a professional association or a government
organization?
Professional associations, for instance, often
produce trade publications intended for working
professionals, such as Monitor on Psychology,
Accounting Today, or Energy Manager.
Unlike trade publications, university presses
and research institutions adhere to higher
peer-review standards.
We will come back to peer review in a moment.
References
Does the source include any references and/or
citations?
Credible research publications list their
sources.
By building upon other scholars’ ideas and
by making this process explicit through a
trail of citations, academics establish credibility
and authority.
What do the references tell you about the
breadth and currency of topic coverage by
the author?
What biases and perspectives do they reveal?
Peer Review
Unlike magazines, or trade publications, scholarly
publications undergo a rigorous peer-review
process.
Peer-review is a process of pre-approval or
review of one’s work by professional peers
intended to uphold academic standards within
a given discipline.
Essential to the peer review process are referees.
These are existing experts in a given field
called upon to evaluate potential publications
or conference proposals.
Referees assess the quality of the writing
and research and may suggest changes to the
original work before it is deemed fit for
publication or presentation.
Hence, peer review is an essential part of
assessing whether one’s sources of information
are authoritative, that is, credible, objective,
and trustworthy.
Date of Publication
Do you require the latest information, or
a classic or standard text?
If the subject of your research topic is quickly
evolving, you may require the most recent
information.
If your topic requires an overview or historiography
of the disciple, you may need older as well
as recent materials.
Recognize the time needs of your topic and
seek sources that reflect these needs.
We can summarize the general differences between
scholarly and popular sources based on several
criteria: purpose, audience, author’s qualifications,
tone, validation, and layout.
In this video, you have learned how to
recognize the elements that signal academic
authority in a publication, such as author’s
qualifications, publisher, references, and
peer review, and
assess whether your sources’ date of publication
reflects the needs of your research topic
For more information about how to evaluate
your sources, Ask Us or connect with your
liaison librarian whose name and contact information
is available in every research guide.
