Writing Center: Evaluating Sources

What is a primary document? 

• Examples of primary documents/sources include: original documents (like the actual United States Constitution), research articles, diaries, interviews, personal accounts of events, eye-witness experiences and live-action news. (created by Indiana University East-Campus Library)
• The Primary Source organization provides a thoughtful explanation of the concept of primary sources and documents.
• Use the Primary Sources Tutorial from U of California: Irvine.

CONCEPT of REFEREED/PEER REVIEW:  
Experts in a field (singly or several people) review an author's work by its written description for methods, plausibility, completeness, ethics, etc. to "weed-out" poorly documented/conceived research, implausible research, poorly constructed research, dishonest research,etc. The hard sciences may also apply a more stringent idea of peer-reviewed by including the idea of blind peer-review. This kind of peer review excludes author and other personal information from the review process. In this case the "editor" as a peer-reviewer is removed from the process.

--created by Indiana University East--Campus Library

From iLearningServices, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-y9VzE2YTs, June 3, 2011

From Olin & Uris Libraries, Cornell University, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDGJ2CYfY9A, Feb. 28, 2008

From libncsu (NCSU Libraries), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCQZ7QnoN0, May 1, 2014