Evaluating Information
AND LEVELS OF ACADEMIC RIGOUR
Newspapers
 Newspapers have editors
and fact checking, although
because of the speed at
which they are published
they are more likely to
make errors than other
print publications.
However they are obliged
to print corrections and
provide apologies if
necessary when they do
this, usually very soon after
the mistake was made.
Newspapers Cont..
 Newspapers are best
searched via specialist
Newspaper databases
like Newsbank and
Factiva (seen opposite)
 NB: Newspaper
databases are not always
compatible with Endnote
Books
 Books also have
publishing houses to fact
check them before
publishing. Because of the
time taken to write, market
and publish a book, the
amount of time to correct
errors is longer. Books
selected by academic
libraries are often sought
from academic (ie:
university press) publishers
and hopefully have an extra
layer of quality assurance.
Books cont
 The UTS library
catalogue and also the
BONUS system (seen
opposite) are the primary
places to search for
books.
Periodicals and Journals, cont..
 Periodicals are publications that come out every
day, every week, every month, quarterly etc. The fact
that they come out after a given period of time is
what gives them their names. Different periodicals
are for different audiences, and the information
within some is considered more reliable and
authoritative than in others.
 Periodicals have different layers of editorial and
quality control. They range from the lower end
(popular magazines) up to trade publications and
then finally scholarly or peer reviewed journals.
Magazines, Trade and Peer-Reviewed Journals
 Magazine is a word associated with popular periodicals. Magazines
tend to be easily identified in their print form because of their eye
catching covers (Rolling Stone or Vogue for example) whereas
Scholarly Journals tend to be a bit more low key, even plain,
featuring only a masthead logo and text
 Trade Publications: Between popular magazine and scholarly
journals lie trade publications, for industry professionals who are
not doing research or teaching at university. They are written by
professionals in the industries, and sometimes journalists. It is
common for these publications to be subject to the sort of scrutiny a
newspaper or popular magazine might be, with editorial control, but
not peer review.
 Scholarly/Peer reviewed journal articles are considered to be
good research because a panel of experts in the area read the article
and provide suggestions and corrections before they are published.
Popular vs Scholarly Journals
Popular Journal
Scholarly Journnal
Features of a Scholarly Journal Article
-
Authors credentials listed at the top of the article,
or an author biography provided to show their
authority on their subject of choice
- An abstract, or summary of the article
 Quoting, and a bibliography or reference list at the
end of an article also indicates a scholarly type of
publication, though this does not guarantee peer
review
 Although there are exceptions, popular articles tend
to be shorter than scholarly articles, and use less
‘jargon’ or terminology.
Other ways to Indentify a Scholarly Article
 To determine if a scholarly journal is ‘peer reviewed’
scholarly journal, use these methods:
 Some databases like EBSCO (Academic Search Premier,
Business Source Premier, and more) and Proquest have a
‘restrict to peer review’ option. Other databases purport
to have only peer reviewed material, like Scopus and
ScienceDirect.
 Another way of investigating a journal is to look up its
title in the UTS library catalogue. When you do this, you
should be take to the title page of the journal in the
database you connect to. Information such whether its
peer reviewed should be displayed on this page.
Types of Databases
 All Peer Reviewed
ie: ScienceDirect
 Mixed
ie: Proquest, EBSCO
Still Not Sure?
Use Ulrichsweb
Look up the Journal
Homepage
Theses
 Finally theses are longer form pieces of research
carried out at University level to achieve Masters and
Doctorate degrees. They are subject to peer review by
examiners. The supervisor cannot be an examiner,
there are at least 2 examiners if not 3 and they are
sourced from places outside the uni and if possible
outside the country.
Finding Theses
 Trove and Proquest
Discovery are the
primary search interfaces
for Dissertations and
Theses. (Proquest seen
right)
Specialty Information Resources
 There are also specialist forms of information that
may be useful for you in preparing for these
assignments – including Property Databases, State
Government records, legal information and Hansard
transcripts.
Consultancy Reports
 Are produced by professional
firms and organizational
bodies. They are generally very
thorough in their methodology
and their acquisition of data.
Some of these consultancies sell
information back to industry,
and sometimes libraries collect
material from these sources.
Names of some local
consultancies or organisational
bodies fulfilling these roles
include the Property Council of
Australia, Residex, RP Data
and BIS Shrapnel.
Consultancy Reports cont..
 The best way to locate
these reports is to seek
out the websites of the
consulting firms or
organisational bodies
(residex website seen
opposite), or search for
their name in the library
catalogue.
Legal Info
 The main three sites to
gain information on the
Site developments listed
are AUSTLII (seen
opposite), Westlaw AU
and the Parliament of
NSW website
.gov, .edu, and .org websites
 Government,
educational and
organizational
websites (.gov, .edu and
.org) can be searched
using the site search in
google.
 Ie: site:.gov.au
Property Databases (RP Data, APM)
 Provide quantitative data
about properties,
including demographic
data about the areas they
reside in.
 Typically you will need to
enter a street address to
find information, rather
than a development
name.