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Dance: Evaluating Sources

Finding Bias

Learn About Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles are usually structured with specific components such as a literature review, methods section, and references. To learn more and see examples of how this looks, click the link below.

Types of Articles

When researching, you will encounter many different types of articles. Here are a few examples to be aware of.

  • Empirical Study: Article that is structured around original research findings. The purpose is to relay what the researcher has found.
  • Literature Review: Article that employs and/or analyzes previously published scholarship. Original concepts should be explored, but authors pull from other's research.
  • Professional Trade Journal: Publication intended for professionals in a specific field, trade, or industry. Not considered scholarly.

Librarian Tip: Peer Review is a process by which articles are reviewed by other scholars or experts in the field before being accepted for publication. Look out for "Peer Reviewed" filters in databases and the catalog to narrow your results to these types of articles.

Evaluating Websites of Organizations

Use these tips to evaluate the websites of organizations. Keep in mind that these are only a starting point and not guaranteed to be failsafe in every situation. 

More Information

For more information on evaluating your sources, including how to evaluate science resources and more academic resources, see our Evaluating Information: Vetting Your Sources guide. 

Quick Tips

We are deeply indebted to Indiana University East's Fake News Guide for these tips.

Tips for Checking News Sources

  1. When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second tab and use it to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
  2. Errors and misinformation span across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images. 
  3. Always be ready to question everything and to fact check.
  4. Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while. If you find yourself fooled by an inaccurate or fabricated news story, use your experience as a learning tool.

Tips adapted from Indiana University East's Fake News Guide.