Women's and Gender Studies: A Guide to Research

In your college assignments, you may be asked to use scholarly or academic sources. This typically means that you need to find peer-reviewed articles. The peer-review process means that other experts in a given field of study have reviewed the article to ensure that it is accurate and credible before it is published. These types of articles are written by researchers for other scholars or experts in a particular field of study. 

However, there may be popular sources that can be helpful or relevant to your information need. 

Newspapers, magazines, and trade publications each serve different purposes and are valuable for specific types of research or information needs:

1. Newspapers:

   • Purpose: Newspapers provide up-to-date information, news coverage, and current events. They're great for finding local, national, or international news as well as opinions and editorial content.
   • Good for:
     • Current events and breaking news
     • Primary source material for historical research (e.g., newspapers from the 1960s for a historical perspective)
     • Local or regional coverage that might not appear in larger, national outlets

2. Magazines:

   • Purpose: Magazines are often written for a general audience and focus on current events, popular culture, trends, and human-interest stories. They may include interviews, opinion pieces, and feature articles.
   • Good for:
     • Popular topics or broad overviews of current issues
     • Trends in culture, fashion, health, and entertainment
     • Human-interest stories or non-specialist articles
     • Accessible, easy-to-read summaries of more complex topics

3. Trade Publications:

   • Purpose: Trade publications are written for professionals in a specific industry or field. They provide industry news, developments, and practical information.
   • Good for:
     • Industry-specific trends, news, and updates
     • Information on best practices, techniques, and tools used in a particular profession
     • Insight into the business or professional context of an industry
     • Often useful for understanding the practical applications of research

Each of these sources has its strengths depending on whether you're looking for timely or industry-focused information!

Evaluating your information for its relevance to your topic, its credibility, and its truthfulness is crucial! Otherwise, you might be fooled or misled to believe false or incorrect information. While there are several evaluation methods to help students remember what to evaluate and how, they all include asking these essential questions.

Questions to Ask when Evaluating Information:

• Is this information relevant to my topic or need?
• Is this information up-to-date?
• Who is the author? Is the author a credible authority on the topic they are discussing?
• What do other sources say on the topic?
• What are the biases? Is one perspective or opinion being favored over another in an unfair, inaccurate, or prejudiced way?
• What are the sources being cited? Can you verify the truthfulness of facts, data, statements, and events that are included in the source?

Below are some helpful tutorial videos that may offer some guidance when evaluating a source.