MATH 399: Senior Seminar (HC) Fall 2024

Some questions to ask yourself:

1. For journal articles: Is the journal it's published in peer-reviewed?

2. For journal articles: Can you tell the reputation of the journal, such as *Impact Factor or other indication of the journal's standing?

*“The journal Impact Factor is the average number of times articles from the journal published in the past two years have been cited in the JCR year. The Impact Factor is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR year by the total number of articles published in the two previous years. An Impact Factor of 1.0 means that, on average, the articles published one or two year ago have been cited one time. An Impact Factor of 2.5 means that, on average, the articles published one or two years ago have been cited two and a half times. Citing articles may be from the same journal; most citing articles are from different journals.”     

From https://osu.libguides.com/c.php?g=110226&p=714742

3. Who wrote or otherwise created the source? What can you find out about that person?

4. How many times has the source been cited?

What does this tell me?

• Highly cited sources have been highly vetted.
  • Note: recently published sources may not have had a chance to be cited yet.
• The authors of highly cited sources may be particular experts in the field and good candidates to follow on Twitter or other social media to find more information on your topic.
• Looking through citing sources may allow you to find more information on your topic.

5. How current is the source? Does it matter for your topic area?

"Popular" sources are things like magazine and newspaper articles, blog posts, or other types of media such as podcasts. They are often not created by an "expert" in the field they're covering, and you often won't know where they got their information. 

• A = Author and accuracy
  • Who wrote or otherwise created the material? Is s/he an expert in the field? What are his or her credentials? Does s/he work for an organization? Is it reliable? 
  • Are there any glaring factual errors? Grammatical or spelling errors?
• B = Bias
  • People create materials for various reasons: to provide information, to push an opinion, to sell something, or just to be funny, to name a few. What is the purpose of this material, and does that tell you anything about possible bias? Does the author present a balanced point of view? Are there any obvious conflicts of interest? Is the tone objective, or is it emotional?
  • Recognize your own bias, too! Do you believe what you're seeing/hearing/reading simply because you want to? Because it fits in with your preconceived notions?
• C = Currency, coverage, and credibility
  • How current is the material? What is an acceptable date range for your topic area?
  • Is coverage of the topic in depth, or is it shallow? Does information seem to be missing?
  • For research studies, is the methodology sound? What does that say about the credibility of the findings?
• D = Documentation and duplication
  • Does the author cite his or her sources? Are they credible? 
  • Can you find the same information in any other source? If you read it first on social media, can you also find it on the news or in a journal article? If research findings, have they been replicated?

Healthy skepticism is a good thing.

If you can't answer these questions, investigate!

You must determine what is appropriate for your topic area or assignment.