First Year Research Experience (FYRE) Support Guide for Research Coaches

While Google and Google Scholar are great starting places when searching for information for a research project, it is important for students to understand these tools are not always sufficient search tools for academic work.  This section outlines what scholarly sources are and showcases various scholarly tools available to students.

What is a scholarly or academic source?
Scholarly or academic sources are written or created by scholars or professionals in their field. Most are evaluated by experts in the field before they are published via the peer-review process.  Popular, or non-scholarly, sources are not typically written by experts in a field (although they can be); they are created for the general public for the purpose of sharing information.

When to use scholarly or popular sources:
It is important for students to recognize when it is appropriate to use different sources and not to think that all scholarly sources are 'good' and popular sources are' bad'.  Rather, it is more important to understand the purpose of different types of sources and how these sources can lend credibility to one's work. 

For example, scholarly sources are core to academic writing as they provide credible evidence to support the author's claims. Professors expect to see students incorporating scholarly sources into their papers. Alternatively, popular or news sources are great sources to use when a student is looking for current events, background information, popular trends, and social media reports (e.g. Twitter). 

Finding scholarly sources:

USearch is a popular search tool for students to use, especially when starting their research.  USearch pulls together various resources (books, journal articles, etc.) from multiple sources and displays them in a single list. 

Scholarly books are often great starting points for students as these types of sources generally provide a broad overview of a topic.  Students can search for books (print and e-books) in USearch (and use the filters to limit to books) or go directly to the Library's Catalogue. This guide provides tips on searching the catalogue.

Scholarly journal articles can be accessed through the library's various databases. The library subscribes to many different databases, some subject-specific such as Political Science Complete and some multi-disciplinary, such as Academic Search Complete and Web of Science.  Students are encouraged to consult the research guide for their course to see recommended databases and other resources in their subject area.  Students can consult this guide for assistance with database searching.

It can be confusing with the various choices for search tools.  "Which search tool should I use" outlines the various search tools and helps searchers decide where to start and to understand what each of these tools do best.

Evaluating sources:

While it’s important to talk about the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly sources, it is equally important to discuss “why” a student should likely use peer-reviewed sources over something they may have found on the internet. Remember, it's not a case of good vs bad sources. Rather, it is important to discuss the purpose of various source types and describe ‘when’ and ‘why’ would you use a non-scholarly source (such as a tweet from a political leader or socioeconomic data from Stats Canada), and when and why would you use a scholarly journal article (i.e. to provide an academic analysis of a topic by refuting, refining, extending, or affirming other’s analysis and argument).

Students should get into the habit of seeing searching and evaluating as a simultaneous process.  Meaning, while they are finding information they are also asking assessment questions like:

• who wrote this source and are they an expert or a credible source in this area?
• is this information relevant to my topic / research question?
• does this information need to be further verified / fact-checked?
• consider bias, including one's own, when searching for information (get multiple perspectives on your topic, not just information that supports your own views, i.e. avoid confromation bias) 

Assistance with searching:
Students are encouraged to contact their subject librarian with questions regarding recommended places to search for information on their topic, search strategies, etc. 

Subject librarians are also available to come into your classroom and facilitate a workshop or a discussion on the various points of the research cycle. 

• Univ Library:
  • Which Search Tool Should I Use
  • Help Me Find ...
  • Research Guides
• Chapters 2-4 from Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research, Ohio State University). Tip: Use the arrows in the bottom left and right corners to navigate within this e-book.
  • Chapter 2: Categorizing Sources
  • Chapter 3: Sources and Information Needs
  • Chapter 4: Precision Searching
• Source Types (Video BYU Library)
• Scholarly vs Popular Sources (video from McMaster University Library)
• Characteristics of Scholarly, Trade, and Popular Sources (from UW Bothell & Cascadia College)
• Finding Good Academic Material (video from Political Studies Department, USask)
• Search Experimentally (from UCLA Library)
• Expanding Perspectives in Your Search (video from UCLA Library)
• Setting your Google Scholar preferences (USask instructions to ensure full off-campus access to all library-licensed resources) 

• Evaluating Sources for Credibility (video from NC State Univ Library)
• Source Evaluation (video from BYU Library - discusses lateral reading, going upstream, and awareness of bias)
• Understanding Expertise (video from  University of Louisville Libraries) > this video is part of their Citizen Literacy Toolkit listed below.
• Credibility is Contextual  (video)
• Source Evaluation (video discusses lateral reading, going upstream, and awareness of bias) - BYU Library
• Chapters 6 "Thinking Critically About Sources"  from Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research (Links to an external site.), Ohio State University) provides practical information on how to identify relevant and credible sources.  As noted: "In order to evaluate a source, you have to answer two questions about it: Is this source relevant to my research question? Is this a credible source– a source my audience and I should be able to believe?" Tip: Use the arrows in the bottom left and right corners to navigate within this e-book.
• SIFT  is a helpful acronym (from Mike Caulfied) outlining things to do to verify information online.  These habits are not meant to take much time, rather, they allow you to do a quick initial assessment to gauge whether a source or a claim deserves a closer look (much like a journalist or professional fact-checker would do).
• Great toolkit here on Citizen Literacy. Being a critical consumer of information is a key component of citizenship.  Review some of these pages, especially the ones on lateral reading and evaluating expertise. These pages have videos, handouts, and activities that you may want to adapt.
• How Do I Evaluate Online Information (tutorial from Univ of Arizona): contains a great video called "Becoming a Fact Checker" which outlines the process of lateral reading and other techniques used by fact-checkers.
• How to Evaluate Information Sources: Critical Questions for Evaluating Your Sources 

The University Library offers various workshops throughout the term on topics such as finding academic sources.  Please encourage your FYRE students to attend these workshops!