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HWS620: Sport Sociology and Ethics: Home

Research Relay Race

Finding the stuff

Evaluation Criteria things to consider when evaluating your source quality. Authority: Who wrote it? What is their expertise? Who do they work for? Why are they trustworthy? How do you know that? Currency: When was this written? How long ago was the info they're quoting published? Has information changed since then? Sources/Data: Where did they get their information? Did they collect it themselves? How did they? If not, what info do they use to prove their point? Purpose: What is the goal of this source? Are they trying to convince you of something? Inform you? Sell you something? Educate you? Point of View: What is the author or organization's perspective? How does that affect their argument? Funding/Transparency: Who funded the research? Who funds the organization? Does that impact their findings? Does that provide potential bias? Explore the source to find evidence to answer these questions. Balance: Does the author provide multiple points of view? Do they address the counterarguments from the other side? Does it provide a balanced view? Organization: Who published the source? What is the goal of the organization? Are they open and transparent about that? Remember that this isn't a check list. Instead, you need to consider the relative strength of the criteria and if the overall quality leans most convincingly for or against use. Charles C. Myers Library

Parts of an article

Keyword Pyramid: start broad to see what you can find, especially if you don't know much about your topic. use the results for more keywords, use synonyms and phrases, keep narrowing your terms. once you start to find answers: search for the problem, the cause, & the solution. look for populations, sports, & discipline specific words or phrases. Try using multiple combinations of the terms to get different results

Search Tips

Citations

Here are a few links to help you out with your APA citations.

Evaluation