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Evaluating Books, Scholarly & Non-Scholarly, Journals, Articles, Websites

Choosing the right sources for your research can be challenging. This guide presents information to help you determine what kind of materials you need for your work and how to evaluate each source.

About Evaluating Books

 

There are a number of questions you should ask about a book before using it as a research resource. These questions focus on 2 areas:

  • authority (i.e. author/editor/publisher details)
  • content

Find Book Reviews

 

Many scholarly journals publish book reviews.  These reviews are written by experts, and they are a valuable tool for evaluating books.

Search for book reviews in the Library's Search All search engine. Many subject specific and multidisciplinary databases (Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, Project Muse) contain book reviews.

When using these database interfaces, limit your search results by article type - select "Book Reviews" to exclude other articles.

Critically Evaluate the Book's Author | Editor | Publisher

 

Questions to ask:
  • Is the author an expert in the field?
  • What work or educational experiences does the author have?
  • With which institution, organization or company is the author affiliated?
  • Has the author written other publications?
  • Is the publisher well known?
  • Does the publisher stand to benefit from the research or argument presented in the book?

Critically Evaluate the Book's Content

 

When evaluating the content of a book, you need to check if it is accurate and relevant. 

Questions to ask:

  • Does the title indicate that the book is too specific or not specific enough? Is there a subtitle with more information?
  • What audience is the book directed towards?
  • Does the book address a topic from a certain timeframe and/or geographic area?
  • What sources did the author use?
  • Is the information current and up-to-date? Does it need to be?

 Further Considerations:

  • Multiple editions indicate the book is well regarded enough to have been through revisions, and has been updated.

  • Scan the preface or the introduction for a statement on why the book was written and what the author hopes to accomplish with it. Often the author will also let you know what perspective of bias he or she brings to the topic.

  • Look for references and/or a bibliography (may be called Works Cited, Sources, etc.). This list shows you what kind of sources the author used to write the book.

  • Browse the Table of Contents to see what topics and subject areas the book covers. Look up one or two of your keywords in the index in the back of the book to see how much those terms are covered in the book. Is the entire book devoted to your topic? Is there a whole chapter? Or just a paragraph or two?

  • Search Library databases for book reviews to find out what others think of the author's book.

  • Look at the subject headings assigned to the book using COTR Catalogue or database record to help you check for content relevance.

  • When deciding if a book's content is current, check the publication date and the dates of the references used in the book's bibliography.

  • Exercise care when looking at a book's publication date. It can take up to two years for a book to be published. Be aware that some dates represent the year a book was republished (as a paperback, or after being out of print for some years).