Invention - check source quality

Sometimes it is obvious that a source is not good. Sometimes it is not.

FOr st year essays, this is not so important. Just avoid bad sources (wikipedia, answers sites, etc) listed under find good sources. For dissertations, academic essays you do during study abroad, you have to be much more careful.

Basics for Academic Articles

Is it being used?
Check if anyone has cited it (Google Scholar).
If no-one has and it isn't new, ask why.
Is it recent? Only cite older articles if they are:

"Classics" - things everyone cites.
in topics that do not change much (philosophy)
in a unpopular field

You will learn the big journals in your area, but for now:
Google "most influential journals in FIELD"
Check "Impact" of what you find:
how often it is cited (Google Scholar has count)

High quality sources to look for

Academic articles can also be low quality. Carefully peer-reviewed articles/books are usually found on:

Large university publishers:
Cambridge University press: (link)
University of Chicago: (link)
Large academic organisation websites (e.g. APA)
Large open-source publishing projects (e.g. PLOSONE)
Carefully managed indexes and databases (e.g. JSTOR)
Large academic publishing companies:

Sciencedirect
Degruyter
Ingenta
Wiley

Low quality sources to avoid in academic articles

"Self publishing" companies/Journals that print anything if they are paid: (lin)
Individual websites, blogs, online encyclopaedias, etc.
Single topic journals published by single-topic people/groups: creation dot com, inconvenient history dot com (links spelled out because I don't want to link to them)

However, don't be too strict:

Some small journals are good. Some big ones are bad.
Some researchers have high quality blogs.

What is Bias?

e.g. research funded by a company making money from the thing researched
e.g. research done by a researcher making money from the thing researched.
e.g. a journal that only publishes papers which say climate change doesn't exist

Bias and Quality practice task

Here are five sources (journal, newspaper)

All are from a Wiki article on Fair Trade: (link)

Score them for bias (1-5) and quality (A-C)

Bias	Unbiased = 5	Maybe a bit biased = 3	Totally Biased = 1
Quality	High Quality = A	Medium Quality = B	Low Quality = C

References for practice task

Griffiths, P. (2010). Lack of rigour in defending Fairtrade: a reply to Alastair Smith. Economic Affairs, 30(2), 45-49. Retrieved from http://www.griffithsspeaker.com/Fairtrade/why_fair_trade_isn.htm

Smith, A. (2008). Fair Trade, Diversification and Structural Change: Towards a broader theoretical framework of analysis. Oxford Development Studies 37(4), 457–478. Retrieved from http://orca.cf.ac.uk/6918/

Carimentrand, A., & Ballet, J. (2010). When Fair Trade increases unfairness: The case of quinoa from Bolivia. Retrieved from http://ethique.perso.sfr.fr/Working%20paper%20FREE-Cahier%20FREE%20n%B05-2010.pdf

Booth, P. (2009, February 20). Don't bully the faithful into buying Fairtrade. The Catholic Herald. Retrieved from http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/20th-february-2009/12/dont-bully-the-faithful-into-buying-fairtrade

Hamel, I. (2006, August 3). Fairtrade Firm Accused of Foul Play. Swiss Info. Retrieved from http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Fair_trade_firm_accused_of_foul_play.html?cid=5351232 23/12/2009

Extra Task: Getting Onioned

When you do not read critically enough, sometimes you even believe things that are written to be funny. For example, some people shared this article with their friends thinking it was real: (link)

However, even reliable sources sometimes print jokes (April Fools)

Even real newspaper sometimes unthinkingly reprint articles that were meant as jokes:

Example 1: (link)

Example 2: (link)

Of these articles, some are jokes and some are real. Can you tell the difference? How?