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                 Evaluating Articles: Step 1

As you find articles pertaining to your research topic, you need to evaluate the information found.  As the researcher, you need to read the article and decide if it will be useful for your research.  You need to consider currency, scope, and authority of the article.

Currency is the year the article was published.  If you are looking for very recent information, you need to make sure the publication date is a current one.  Depending on the type of research you are doing, the year of the article may be very important to your research.

 

Scope pertains to the type of information contained in the article.  You have to decide whether the article sounds useful for your topic.

   

Authority means that the information was based on research and where the research was conducted is included in the article.  This allows you to decide whether the research is from a credible source.