Evaluating an Article

I can see the author’s name at the top of the article, but how do I know if s/he is an expert?

• Is there any information given either at the beginning or end of the article that tells you more about the author?  Which university s/he works for, what qualifications and/or experience s/he has with this topic, etc.

 

• Sometimes you can learn more about the author from reading the article, but not always.  It’s worth looking for clues in the article though, just in case!

 

• Sometimes there will be a university listed after the author’s name at the top of the article.  This means that the author works at that university and is usually a good indication that the author has expertise in the field.  Look up the university and find your author’s name on their web site.  What does the author do at the university?  In which field? 

 

• Sometimes, the author’s qualifications will be listed eg. MD, PhD, etc., which doesn’t necessarily mean that they know about the topic (It depends which topic they are writing about!  If they have a PhD in Psychology but are writing about Gardening, the PhD might not be that helpful!), but is often a good indicator that they do.

 

I can’t find any information about my author in the article!  What should I do?

• As with the books example above, look elsewhere!  Try the library catalog and see if your author has written any books. 

• Try looking for other articles in the databases, to see if your author has published other articles on the same or similar topics.

 

• Try the Internet to see if you can find any other publications and/or information about the author.

 

• Try searching in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com).  If your author’s name comes up in Google Scholar, it will also say how many other people have cited your author’s work in their publications.  This is a good indication of whether the author is an expert in the field – other people respect his/her work and cite it.