PSYC 172: Human Sexuality: Evaluating Your Literature

Research papers will often require you to use a variety of different types of sources. Once you have found sources on your topic, it's important to understand the types of information a sources provides to you. Each of your sources must help you address/answer your research question in some way. A general way to categorize these types of information is by considering if a source provides data you can analyze, arguments you can engage with, or background information to contextualize your topic.

Consider Relevancy

When considering the relevancy of a source, there are several things to ask yourself:

• How closely is it related to your myth? What does it contribute?
• Is the scope of the source appropriate for your research? Does the source provide a general overview of your or is it focused specifically on a single aspect of your myth?
• Who is the intended audience for the source? Is the information too basic or too technical? Does it assume you have prior knowledge about the topic?
• How many sources have you found? Have you searched thoroughly enough to find and choose the most relevant sources available?

There are several ways to identify a scholarly source.

1. Use a database

Databases have tools that can help you narrow results to scholarly and/or peer review

2. Google the source/publication title 

If you Google the source/publication title and go to their webpage, look for Journal Information or About This Journal, 

3. Check a directory -  Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory

Ulrich's is a database that has information on every published journal.  To check a publication title, search for its title and look for the icon above.  That signifies it is Refereed, AKA peer -reviewed.