PHI 150 - Science and Human Culture

For the purposes of this course, you will need to find reputable/credible information from respected sources. However, you are not required to find scholarly sources for this paper (though, you can if you want to).

But what does reputable mean? What does scholarly mean? In the box below, I will begin to explain those distinctions. If you need more assistance finding good sources, feel free to reach out to me or try searching in the Library Catalog or Library Databases tabs of this guide.

1. Sensationalized Information:

• Published for public consumption.
• Content is meant for a general audience, for extreme interest or some sort of reaction.
• Not factually accurate and do not cite their sources. 
• Examples: National Enquirer, InfoWars, Food Babe
• Should I use these as evidence?: never​

2. Popular Content

• Published for public consumption.
• The content is meant for a general audience, often for entertainment purposes.
• They are often short (for easy consumption), with simple language used.
• There is typically no bibliography with few primary sources used as evidence, if there is evidence.
• Examples: Time Magazine, Popular Science, Scientific American
• ​Should I use these as evidence?: Depending on the content being produced, and the author of individual articles, you could choose to use this as evidence. You should pay particular attention to the content to determine whether the article was written for an informational purpose or for entertainment. For example, Popular Science may be a better choice than Time Magazine for a research paper about a scientific topic. However, these could also be used for selecting a topic, or be used as a jumping off point to find more credible articles (the articles they are referencing).

3. Newspapers

• Meant for a general audience
• Typically reliable sources (though it depends on the individual news site and author of the article)
• Can reflect the interests and tastes of the audience
• Fairly informative
• Usually refers to sources without formal bibliographies
• Examples: New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist
• Should I use these as evidence?: Depending on the individual source, these could be used as evidence. The author will have some sort of authority on the subject, and the content is assessed before publication for accuracy.

3. Trade Journals

• Meant for a specific community (whoever works in that trade - practicing biologists would read biology trade publications)
• Reliable sources
• Written by those who work in the field
• Meant to help further the profession, but not to the critical level of scholarship.
• Typically there are short bibliographies.
• Usually put out by a professional organization in the field
• Examples: Science (put out by AAAS), Nature (put out by Springer Nature), Police Chief (put out by International Association of Chiefs of Police)
• Should I use these as evidence?: You should be able to use these. They come from authoritative sources for a scientific audience. They also are meant to be informative rather than entertaining.

4. Scholarly Sources

• Meant for scholars to read to communicate within the academic community.
• Go through a peer-review process, to ensure accuracy and academic rigor.
• These are typically longer (10+ pages), with a list of references and academic language used throughout.
• The content is meant to be unique, groundbreaking, and push the profession forward.
• There is an assumption of some technical background with the material when reading. 
• Scholarly Journals are what most think of as "scholarly," but academically published books are also considered scholarly. 
• Examples: Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography, Journal of Horticulture, Research in Computer and Communication Engineering.
• Should I use these as evidence?: Yes. This is the best research there is, though depending on the audience, this may be too academic for easy understanding. ​

** These are guidelines to help you begin to think critically about resources and source types. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and it is ultimately up to you to determine what you should and should not use.

If you need assistance determining if a source is credible/reputable, check out the evaluative tools on the CRAAP Test and 5 Ws tabs on this guide.