How can you determine the quality of the sources you find? First, it helps to know what you are looking for. Suitable sources of information should be unbiased and expert. To begin considering the adequacy of your sources you can look at:

• Author: does your source have an author? If so, what is that author's background? Do they have demonstrated expertise? Where are they employed? Can you find any information on past publications?
• Location: where is the source coming from? Blog and/or media outlet (newspaper, magazine, online content creator, etc.)? Journal? Book?
• Article from a Scholarly, Popular or Trade publication:
  • Understand Scholarly, Popular and Trade publications, and determine if that type of publication is an appropriate source.
  • If you are not sure if the publication is reputable you could use the Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, which is a quick way to learn important things about journal and magazine sources. Search the title of the journal or magazine to learn if it is peer-reviewed/scholarly (Ulrich's uses the term "refereed"). You can also learn who published the journal.

Ulrich's is a library database that provides details for over 300,000 periodicals of all types, including academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more.

• Publisher: who published this item? Does this publisher lean toward more popular or academic sources? Is the publisher related to a university?
• Primary or Secondary Source?
  • A primary source and be an original record created at the time of historical events, or it could be created well after events, such as a memoir or oral history. Primary sources may not be scholarly (like a newspaper article, diary or photograph) or may be scholarly (such as an original research study). 
  • A secondary source interprets existing information. Irving's biography is an example of a secondary source. A research article that interprets existing primary sources (like a diary) is a secondary source.
  • Neither a primary nor secondary source is necessarily a quality source. You must look at all the criteria together to help inform your judgment about the quality of the source.

Make sure to cite your sources! This allows readers to know what information sources you based your paper on and where they can find the sources themselves. This also helps you avoid plagiarism, even if done unintentionally. There are many different citation styles, but the two main ones are the MLA citation style and the APA citation style. Each style has its own method for formatting the paper overall and also for citing sources.

• For more information on the MLA Citation Style and how to use it, click here.
• For more information on the APA Citation Style, click here.

Many databases will provide citations for items you find within them (this option is generally found at the top or upper right of the page and usually in a "tools" section. This will save you time, but you should still double check the accuracy of any automated citations.