In your assignments, you will be asked to use sources that are both credible and relevant. While there are some tips to help you gauge the credibility of a particular source, relevance is something that you will be expected to judge on your own based on the source content and your intended purpose for it. Relevant sources should be appropriate and strongly connected to your arguments.
View the following video created by the North Carolina State University Libraries to learn more about credible sources:
Here are a few criteria for determining if your source is scholarly:
Author(s) credentials - are they experts working or teaching in this field of study?
Length - is it a few brief paragraphs or a longer, more substantive article?
Language - is it written for other scholars in the field? Do they used specialized or technical language specific to this field of study?
References - is the author(s) citing other scholars in this field of study? Do they have a robust reference list?
Journal or Book Type - If it's a journal article, what kind of journal is the article is published in? Is it a scholarly journal, or even peer reviewed? If it’s a book, is it published by a university press or other well-respected commercial publisher known for publishing scholarly works?
