Literature, Determining Quality of

It is important when determining quality of literature to distinguish among different types of literature. There are significant differences between academic sources like journals, books, and encyclopedia entries, and nonacademic sources like popular press magazines and newspapers. One of the first distinctions to make is the difference between academic and nonacademic sources. Typically, researchers will want to cite academic sources in their research articles because they are more credible than nonacademic sources, which are written for the general public. Gathering and citing information from a peer-reviewed, academic journal for which the researcher has collected data and the resulting article reporting the data has undergone a rigorous review process by one’s peers to ensure that the study is ethical and rigorous is very different than a journalist providing information on a subject for a magazine or newspaper written for the lay public (e.g., Glamour or Men’s Health). Even though the information in popular press magazines might be accurate and valuable, it usually is not as credible as going directly to the original source of a research study. Sometimes journalists interview scholars about their research, but they often do not report all of the necessary information about a study’s goals and methods for the reader to accurately determine how the study was conducted and whether the results are valid. Even sources that are scholarly but written for the general public, like Psychology Today, usually do not provide enough information in their articles to judge the credibility of the research. Sometimes one can use information, like statistics, from certain popular press magazines (e.g., Time, Newsweek, or the Wall Street Journal) as an attention catcher to draw one’s audience into the article. However, that information can be gathered from a more reliable source, such as the U.S. Census Bureau or another outlet where valid statistics were collected. This entry examines the differences between journals and books and between different types of articles, how to assess the quality of evidence presented in different types of publications, and how to conduct a literature search.