Source evaluation of scholarly texts
It is necessary to review and evaluate the sources you use when writing academic texts. Regardless of the form of source you use, you must critically review its relevance and accuracy.
When you are going to use reference material in your academic writing, you need to be sure that the material you use is scientific. This page describes how to evaluate the material you find.
How do you assess the scientific validity of a text?
Scientific texts have in common that the language is factual, technical terms are used and source references are continuously included in the text. The texts usually follow a given structure with summary, introduction, method, results and discussion, although traditions in different fields such as the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities give varying forms to the text. Scientific texts are also assessed for the review process they have undergone and as a primary or secondary source of research.
The peer review process means that the text is reviewed by editors, experts and researchers in order to publish credible and quality-assured research results. It takes place before an article is published in a scientific journal. A peer review process can be open-ended, blind, or double-blind. The three variants imply different degrees of transparency in terms of anonymising the identity of the author and the reviewer. Today, the review process can also take place experimentally after publication, where readers can openly comment on the text, or before publication. The way in which the review process has been carried out can be a quality basis for the evaluation of a scientific text.
A first-hand source is original data from research, e.g. an original article in a scientific journal. A secondary source can be a description, discussion, interpretation, commentary, analysis, evaluation or summary of someone else's research.
What is a scientific text?
Watch the video "What is a scientific text" on Youtube (in Swedish)
When you want to evaluate a scientific text
Start by categorising the material according to the form of publication (e.g. article, thesis, report, conference paper or book). Always ask the questions for each material:
- What is it?
- Who has written it?
- What is the purpose?
- Who is the target group?
- What is the publication process?
By asking the questions, you will be helped to evaluate the content of the text in terms of the author's knowledge, intention, the review process of the text and whether the text is the first or second choice source of research. When you evaluate your source, you also need to compare it with other sources in the research field.
Is the result still relevant? Is there more research from other sources?
A research result adds new knowledge and is used to carry out new research. Once you have found something interesting, search further to form an idea of the research field. How has the research been received by others? How old is it and has there already been other research that adds further knowledge?