Evaluating sources

Not all sources are suitable to use in your thesis or paper. Therefore, first assess them for relevance and scientific quality. This way, you increase the reliability of your text. Read how to do so on this page.

Determining the scientific nature of sources

If you want to determine the scientific quality of your sources, have a look at the following checks:

    Determining the relevance of sources

    To find out if a source is relevant for your research, ask yourself the following questions:

    • Does the source help you to answer your main questions and sub-questions?
    • Does the source answer your whole question/sub-question or only one aspect?
    • To what extent does the main question of the source you found match with your own questions?
    • How strong are the similarities between the research object or the analysis unit in the piece you found and those in your own paper/thesis? The research object may be a period, or a person, a group, an area, a substance, a disease, a proces etc.
    • Is the context of the research object the same as in your case?
    • When was the piece published and when was the research in question carried out?

    Think that you will rarely find a source that provides a complete answer to your main questions and sub-questions or that reports on the exact same research or problem you are working on. 

    Using non-scientific sources

    Are you using non-scientific sources (also known as grey literature) like newspapers, blogs, websites, reports? Evaluate its reliability by paying attention to the following:

    1. Has the author or responsible organisation been named?
    2. Do you know the date of publication or when it was updated?
    3. The standard of the sources. 
      • pay attention to the language, the level of argumentation and the number of citations.

    You can use non-scientific material as:

    • research subject (For example: how is something portrayed in popular media?).
    • primary source (archive material, letters, interviews, statistics, news items)
    • indication of social relevance
    • illustration of your point

    Training on evaluating sources