Before beginning a project you will sometimes need to figure out what kind of source will provide the kind of information you need to answer your research question. If your professor has not assigned what types of sources to use, consider if you need primary, secondary or a mix of types before starting your search.
|
Source Type |
Description |
More Information |
|
Scholarly Articles |
Scholarly articles and books introduce new knowledge based on original research or experimentation. Many scholarly articles undergo the peer-review process through which experts in the field scrutinize articles before they are published, resulting in high quality scholarly information. |
Investigate further: |
|
|
Specialized publications inform and update people who work in a particular industry or occupation about current trends and events in that industry or occupation. |
Search:
|
|
Newspaper |
Newspapers and magazine articles provide a range of information that may entertain, relay current events information, or present educated opinions. While this information may be helpful for some assignments, it is not considered scholarly. |
Search: |
|
Websites |
Websites are great for all kinds of information. News, video, images, scanned and photographed artifacts and documents, music and recordings! Many museums, colleges, libraries and organizations share a lot of information online. However, as you know, websites can be created by anyone, and can change at any time, so be sure to evaluate any website you use. |
|
|
Images, Audio |
Images, audio and video add to presentations and papers where words may be unclear. They can also be used as primary sources in your own research, especially images and audio recordings from events.
|