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Evaluation of Sources

Elements you need to cite an item in a paper are usually the same as those you inspect to evaluate an article.

La Barre, Weston. They shall take up serpents; psychology of the southern snake- handling cult. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

 

Hood, Ralph W., and David L. Kimbrough. "Serpent-handling holiness sects: theoretical considerations." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 34('95): 311-322.

Table 1: Elements to include in a citation:

Web page

Journal Article Print

Journal Article Online

Book

Author

Author

Author

Author

Title (if appropriate)

Title of article

Title of article

Title

Sponsoring organization

Journal title

Journal title

publisher

URL and date you connected to it

Issue and volume number

URL of article and date connected to or Database in which article is located, URL, and dated connected to

Date of publication

Section or pages if possible

date

Issue and volume number

*

*

 

page numbers

date

*

*

 

*

 

page numbers

*

Table 2: Elements to examine when evaluating resources

Web page

Journal Article Print

Journal Article Online

Book

Author -- affiliation and background: specialist? journalist? independent scholar?

Author -- affiliation and background Author -- affiliation and background

Author-- affiliation and background: specialist? journalist? independent scholar?

!Sponsoring organization-- political? educational? nongovernmental organization (ngo)? special interest? nonprofit? for profit? personal? self-promoting

Journal -- political? educational? nongovernmental organization (ngo)? special interest? nonprofit? for profit? personal? Journal -- political? educational? nongovernmental organization (ngo)? special interest? nonprofit? for profit? personal?

publisher -- commercial publisher? associatetd with a university (e.g., University of Hawaii Press), representing an interest group or political ideaology?

URL and date you connected to it -- current? recently updated?

date -- appropriate for topic?Is currency important (it isn't always)? URL of article and date connected to or Database in which article is located

Date of publication -- appropriate for topic?Is currency important (it isn't always)?

Links -- working? extensive? relevant?

pages or length -- appropriate for your needs? in depth coverage or summary Links -- working? extensive? relevant?

nature of book -- report? summary? analysis/discussion of topic? neutral view point (if this is possible)? expressing clear point of view?

*

nature of article -- report? analysis/discussion of topic? neutral view point (if this is possible)? expressing clear point of view? date -- appropriate for topic?Is currency important (it isn't always)?

*

*

 

* pages or length -- appropriate for your needs? in depth coverage or summary

*

*

 

* nature of article -- report? analysis/discussion of topic? neutral view point (if this is possible)? expressing clear point of view?

*

Author and sponsoring organization are probably the most important aspects of the Web page to consider when evaluating since in many cases you don't have the filtering process provided by a publisher and/or editor.

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