Unless otherwise instructed by your teacher, you'll probably want to use a variety sources to help you gain a complete understanding of your topic. Sources of information generally fall within three categories.These categories are Popular, Substantive, and Scholarly (or Peer Reviewed). To use them skillfully you need to be able to identify them and understand their differences.
Watch the brief video below for more information:
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As you begin to explore your topic, you need to be sure that you are using the best possible sources of information. You will likely find a variety of sources during your research: books, articles, Web documents, interviews, DVDs, and more. For each and every source you use you want to make sure it passed the CRAAP test:
Currency - Is the content presented current enough for your project? For your specific research question?
Relevancy - Does it answer your research question?
Authority - Does the author have relevant expertise on the topic about which she is writing?
Accuracy - Is the information provided correct?
Purpose - Is the information biased? Is the author trying to persuade you to believe a certain way?
Watch the brief video below to learn more about the CRAAP Test:
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Your instructor may require that you use scholarly articles in your research. These articles are also known as academic, or peer-reviewed articles. What she is asking you to use are journals that contain articles written by scholars in order to develop the body of knowledge in the subject areas in which they specialize.
This video clip from The Peabody Library will help you identify scholarly sources so that if your instructor requires you to use only scholarly sources, you'll know what she is talking about.