In the information overload age, users need to put to the test any piece of information coming their way. Users need to understand how the content of information sources is structured in order to use these sources effectively. In the end, only the individual user can determine whether or not the information is relevant to the assigned research.
The publication cycle or dissemination of information
Information is disseminated in three stages:
1. In the first stage, information is disseminated from primary
sources created by an individual (e.g. Marie Curie's lab notes,
Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts, Vincent Van Gogh's letters to
his brother Theo, oral histories)
2. In the second stage, information is disseminated from secondary
sources created by individuals who review, summarizes, and criticizes
the original works of the primary sources (e.g. review articles,
abstracts and indexes)
3. In the third stage, information is disseminated from tertiary
sources which summarize and synthesize popularly accepted primary
and secondary sources.
There are specific criteria such as author, publisher, currency, and review that guide users to evaluate sources of information.
Author
A piece of creative work, be it a painting, a concerto, or a book is defined by its creator or author. In the publishing field, much more than in other creative fields such as music and fine arts, the author is the primary factor to consider when evaluating the work. Information deals with reliability and credibility, hence the author's authority is of utmost importance. Is the author an expert in the pertaining field? Does the author have an impartial stance? How is the author viewed by the peers in the field?
Refer to our lesson on Biographical Reference Sources to find information about authors.
The author's publishing track record is one good indication of the author's authority on a particular subject. The library online catalog or the BOOKS IN PRINT (author series) will provide information about an author's body of works.
Citations of the author's works by other experts in the field are indications of the author's authority. However, not all citations are positive, some citations may be negative, and this is all part of the dynamic debate among thinkers. The user relies on his/her personal judgment when evaluating authors.
Publisher
Publisher's name is often overlooked in the evaluation of information. Publisher's name should be one of the criteria for evaluating information.
When evaluating books, a university publisher's name on the cover (UCLA Press, Princeton Press, etc.) indicates that they are scholarly publications, the results of years of research. Many publishers are well-known for specific subject or language areas because that is all they publish (e.g. McGraw Hill for educational materials, Arte Publico Press for Spanish subjects and in Spanish).
When evaluating periodical articles, the name of the periodical (e.g. the New York Time is a respected newspaper) is the most important factor, unless the article's author is well-known. In scholarly journals, articles are written by professors or research scientists with avant-garde ideas and theories on a particular subject. For class assignments, teachers usually prefer or demand that students use sources from scholarly journals.
Comparison between popular magazines and
scholarly journals is discussed at:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill20.html
Date of publication
Although date is an indication of currency, most books or articles were written long before they were actually published due to the lengthy publishing process. Citations to a book or an article always give the date of publication.
The date of publication indicates the currency of the information. In the volatile fields of business, science and technology, currency is essential because information can become ancient in a relatively short time.
Currency does not apply in many works considered classic masterpieces because they are often referred to and cited by modern experts. In the field of Library Science, Pierce Butler's Introduction to Library Science, published in 1933, is a must-read for library science students. Works by Socrates and Plato are often quoted by modern thinkers. (Do you know when they wrote their masterpieces?)
Currency does not apply to sources of information that were published pertaining to and concurrently to an event. Currency is irrelevant with regard to both primary sources (i.e. Marie Curie's laboratory notes in Paris when she was conducting radium experiments) and secondary sources (i.e. newspaper accounts of Marie Curie's experiments with radium).
You can learn more about evaluating information at:
http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/infocomp/modules/05_evaluate
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill26.htm
The research process involves gathering information sources to support your thesis statements. At the end of your research paper, you need to correctly describe the sources that you have consulted. The description of each source consulted is called a citation because it cites a document (a book, periodical article, film, etc.) that you have used to write your research paper. The group of citations that you list is called a selective bibliography or preferably a sources-consulted list, because a true bibliography would include all the documents ever written on a particular subject.
There are specific ways and orders to cite information sources, depending on the type and the format of the source. There are specific elements (author's name, title, date of publication, etc.) that must be included in the citation, and again, the elements vary according to the item being cited.
The two most popular handbooks for writing proper citations are the MLA (Modern Language Association) handbook and the APA (American Psychology Association) handbook. Teachers are very strict about proper citations, I highly recommend that you refer often to and become adept at using either handbook. Most libraries have these handbooks in their collection, however, the purchase of one of these books is a good investment for future uses.
For this class, we will use the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th edition, by Joseph Gibaldi. Look in the index in the back of the book, find the proper section to consult for citing books, periodicals, electronic sources, etc. The specific sections are too numerous to list them all here. These are a few sections most referred to:
The following are basic rules of citations according to MLA style:
Book (see
section 4.6.1-27 of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers)
1. Author's full name (last name first)
2. Full title (including any subtitle)
3. Edition (if the book is a second or later edition)
4. Number of the volume and the total number of volumes (if the
book is a multivolume work)
5. City of publication
6. Shortened form of the publisher's name (see section 6.5 of
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers)
7. Year of publication
Mann, Thomas. Library Research Models. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Article in a scholarly journal (see section 4.7.1-4 of MLA Handbook for Writers
of Research Papers)
1. Author's name
2. Title of the article
3. Title of the journal
4. Volume number
5. Year of publication
6. Inclusive page numbers of the article (i.e., the number of
the page on which the article begins, a hyphen, and the number
of the page on which the article ends)
Jacob, Herbert. "The Future Is Electronic." Social Science Quarterly 77 (1996) : 204-9.
Newspaper or magazine article (see section 4.7.5-6)
1. Author's name
2. Title of the article
3. Title of the periodical
4. Date of publication
5. Inclusive page numbers of the article
Roy, Archie. "Star Fields." New Scientist 22 Apr. 1989: 73-76.
Internet Sources
(see 4.9.1-4)
1. Author' s name
2. Title of the document
3. Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional
or personal site
4. Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database
5. Date of electronic publication or last update
6. Name of the institution or organization sponsoring or associated
with the site
7. Date when you accessed the source
8. Network address, or URL
Naderi, Firouz. "Origins: The Search
for our Cosmic Roots." The Origins Program.
Aug. 1999. National Aeronautics and Space Administation. 22 May
2000
<http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/library/kona/index.html>.
As you can see, regardless of the source of information, the author's name, title, and date of the source are the three constant elements in any citation. More information about citation can be found at the following Web sites:
APA style:
http://www.albany.edu/library/divs/usered/apastyle.html
MLA style:
http://www.albany.edu/library/divs/usered/mlastyle.html
Citation for electronic resources will be discussed further in module 9 when we cover the Internet.