"Evaluating Sources for Credibility" by NCSU Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
"Scholarly Conversation" by Lila D Bunch Library is used in accordance with YouTube Terms of Service.
"Peer Review in 3 Minutes" by by NCSU Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Academic writing is part of the scholarly conversation, which consists of published material about a particular topic.
When you begin a research project you become part of the conversation.
You enter the conversation by reading and responding to the works of others. Your research is your response and your voice in the conversation. To ensure that your voice is valid and significant your own research should be:
The editorial review process is crucial to a source's overall credibility. The greater the number of reviewers, and the more time spent on the review process, the more credible a source is likely to be. Let's look at some common information sources and consider them in light of these criteria.
College research assignments often require that you use peer reviewed sources. During the peer-review process an author's work is scrutinized by experts in the same field (peers) as the author. This process ensures the academic quality of the work and of the information it contains.
The table shown below details the amount of time typically spent on review, plus the number of reviewers commonly assigned to the editorial review process, for a number of different types of information sources. Educational and academic resources are subject to much more editorial scrutiny, so the information they contain is more trustworthy for academic research.
Publication Type |
Time in Review |
Number of Reviewers |
---|---|---|
social media |
seconds or minutes | none |
newspapers | hours | 1-2 |
magazines & trade journals | days | 1-2 |
scholarly journals | months | 3-4 |
academic books | 6-12 months | 3-4 |
encyclopedias | 3+ years | 3-4 |