ART 2330: Photography: a Cultural History

Why Sources Matter: Evaluating Sources

Travis needed to use an academic or scholarly peer-reviewed source for an assignment in Photography History. He asked me about it and I explained what that means. It is important to use sources you can rely on, which requires that you evaluate them before use. This means that authors are named and they state where they find their information, and the publication has a good reputation for being trustworthy, and so on. Ask a librarian for more about what peer-review means, in regard to journals and articles. (Also see more below under Source Types).

Credibility or Evidence

Credibility means that the source relies upon facts, the author has credentials or has consulted with an expert, and that the source, if scholarly, is reviewed by others (peer reviewed or double-checked) to ensure accuracy. This also means the information is backed up by evidence (footnotes or attribution to reliable studies or statistics, etc., are given). Also whenever a reliable item is from a published source, whether academic, peer-reviewed, or not, there is an editorial process that checks it. This is not the case for social media posts or for personal pages on the open Web. 

A more helpful way to think about this idea and to check sources is to ask general questions of them, such as these (4 W's):

• WHO provides the information?  Do the authors have expertise or credentials?  Or did they consult with experts?
• WHAT information are the authors presenting? What about it makes it reliable?  Are any sources given?
• WHY are the authors sharing this information?  What is its purpose?  Is there any bias towards a point of view?
• WHERE did you find the information? Is it associated with a reliable institution or could it be from a fringe group?

What if you still don't feel confident in choosing credible sources?

Source Types 

You should probably look at the source type, since all sources are published differently and this can affect their credibility. A social media post from an unknown person cannot be considered reliable, for instance. Here's a summary of the different source types you might use in ART 2330:

• Scholarly (and / or peer-reviewed) journal articles: an article that's been double-checked by scholars before publication
• Academic books: a book, reviewed by an editor who is a scholar and one that follows academic standards, in print or as an e-book
• Trade magazine or profession-related articles: an article by a professional in the field designed for an average worker get information 
• Magazine articles and newspaper articles: written by professional journalists in the field (according to proper journalism ethics)

Finding Good Sources

Did you know that the most credible sources usually cost money to view?

This can cause problems when you research because less credible sources on the Web are easier to access and often come up first in results. Our Library pays publishers to let you read the most credible sources for FREE with our Library Databases, so it's worthwhile to use them.

What about Using A.I. for research?

Please do not use ChatGPT or other A.I. generators to find sources and their references. Your teachers and I have found that A.I. tools, because of the way they are, and where they get their content, are so focused on giving you an answer that they make up references and citations (see the linked article). When this happens, the A.I. tool won't be able to tell you that it is lying. It is known as a hallucination. Maybe in the future this problem will be fixed, but for now it is a problem if you do your research with A.I., because it might set you up to fail! It's better to use Library databases which makes sure that you are referencing actual research!  

Continue to the next section to see examples of specific Photography History resources for this class. Use the forward link at the bottom right.