Evaluating Information in Sociology
When looking for information sources to use for a paper or assignment, it's important to think about what resources are best for your needs, and how trustworthy the information might be. In this tutorial you'll learn to evaluate articles by examining their Authority and Methodology, and by looking at how an article fits into the Scholarly Conversation.
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Quick Check!
Evaluating Authority
It doesn't matter what an author got their degree in. A PhD in any field is pretty much the same.
One of the key elements to consider when checking an article's credibility is the authorship. Who wrote the article you want to use? Why do you think you can trust what they have to say?
In sociology, as with many academic disciplines, you should expect a trustworthy author to have a combination of education and experience. Education means that the author has a PhD in sociology. Experience means that they work as a researcher in the field of sociology. This is usually at a university and involves designing primary research studies and implementing them, then writing about the results as part of their daily job as professors.
You can check for the education level by looking for the letters PhD next to the author's name. You can check for experience in a researcher by looking for evidence of a current university affiliation. Often, an article will include a short biography of the author which will include this information. You can also look for a .edu email address. If all else fails, Google them!