UGST 1001 - K. Toews - General Education - MRU Library Website at Mount Royal University

Outline for today's class

Evaluating the strengths/weaknesses of different types of sources
How to find encyclopedia articles (i.e. reference entries)
Using LibrarySearch and Google Scholar to find scholarly articles and books
- Searching by keywords
- Using one source to help you find others
Time to work on your assignments

Evaluating Sources for Credibility

Framework for Evaluating Sources
Practice Activity - How Credible Are These Sources?

When evaluating a source for its reliability and usefulness, consider the following questions. Note: It is often not enough to look on the source itself for the answers to these questions - you may need to fact check information using other trusted sources.

The acronym CRAAP highlights key things to look for when evaluating a source. C is currency - when was the information published. R is relevance - does it relate to my topic. A is authority - who wrote the information. A is for accuracy - how accurate is the information. P is for purpose - why was the information created.

Take a look at your assigned source and answer the following questions. You do not need to read the source in full.

Question 1: What type of source is it? (scholarly article, scholarly book, entry from a reference book (e.g. an academic encyclopedia), magazine article, newspaper article)

Question 2: Using the CRAAP framework, evaluate your source. Would you use it in a university assignment?

Assigned sources

Group 1 - Mom and Dad will hate me: The ethics of writing about family in memoir-fiction

Group 2 - Gender and Life Writing

Group 3 - Trauma and Life-Writing

Group 4 - Educated by Tara Westover review – escape from a Mormon fundamentalist family

Group 5 - Escape from Doomsday: Tara Westover's journey from a survivalist cult to Cambridge

Search Tips for Finding Scholarly Sources for this Assignment

Search strategies

Truncation: Use the asterisk * to search for multiple endings of a word e.g. masculin* finds masculine, masculinity, masculinities, etc.

Exact Phrases: Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases e.g. "life writing"

Boolean Operators:

AND Operator (narrows results by requiring both terms)
- Example: education AND memoir - This search will only return results that contain both the terms "education" and "memoir"
OR Operator (expands results by accepting either term)
- Example: rural OR isolated - This search will return results containing either "rural" or "isolated" or both
Combined Example
- Example: (trauma OR abuse) AND education - This will find sources that contain either "trauma" or "abuse" AND must also contain "education"

(Link to slides with search term suggestions)

Example search keywords

Question 3: Nature’s Role in Educated

“nature education” OR “outdoor education” OR “environmental influence”
“rural upbringing” OR “rural isolation”
“place-based learning” OR (landscape AND identity)
nature AND memior AND self-discovery
psychology AND (nature OR mountains OR outdoors)
“rural community” AND “childhood development”

Finding Scholarly Encyclopedia Entries

Scholarly encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks (also known as reference works) provide short definitions or overviews to terms and topics. They are particularly helpful at the beginning of your research, as they may give you additional search terms to help you uncover more sources.

Credo Academic Core
An online reference library comprised of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, etc.
Searching Tips

Credo Permalink Help
Oxford Reference Library
Cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
Includes subscription titles via Oxford Reference Online Premium subscription collection as well as access to individual reference titles purchased perpetually.

Specific encyclopedia titles that might contain relevant entries:

SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies (2020)
SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education (2020)

Finding Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Characteristics of a Peer Reviewed Scholarly Article

Authors: Experts in their field with institutional affiliations listed
Publication: Appears in peer-reviewed journals (check journal homepage or Ulrich's Directory)
Title: Specific, clearly identifying the research question
Language: Academic with specialized terminology
Length: Typically more than 3 pages
Citations: Includes extensive references to other scholarly works

Examples of Peer Reviewed Scholarly Articles

LibrarySearch refers to the search box on the Library homepage

Tips for Using LibrarySearch:

Once you have run your search, use the limits on the left-hand side to limit to Peer Reviewed and Resource Type - Articles.
- Note: The peer-reviewed limit doesn't work perfectly - you have to look at the full text of the article to confirm it is a scholarly research article. Refer to the characteristics listed in an earlier tab.
Select "Expand your results beyond MRU Library" to make sure you are seeing the broadest range of research on your topic. If we don't have a copy of the article you are interested in, you can request it for free using our interlibrary loan service.

Image of filters in LibrarySearch. Peer reviewed and resource type - articles limits have been selected. Setting has been changed to show results beyond MRU Library

Google Scholar helps find scholarly articles, but remember to evaluate sources carefully as content isn't strictly reviewed.

When using Google Scholar off-campus:

Go to Settings → Library Links → search for MRU Library → check "Full-text@MRU Library" → save.
This will show Full-Text@MRU Library links beside your search results.

Screenshot of Google Scholar showing the link to full text next to the article

Finding Scholarly Books and Book Chapters

How Do I Know if a Book is Scholarly?
Using LibrarySearch to Find Scholarly Books

Characteristics of a Scholarly Book

Authors are experts in their field with institutional affiliations usually noted in the book
Books undergo review processes with feedback from experts
Published by academic presses (like Oxford University Press or Routledge)
Written for an expert audience, often using specialized terminology
Contains clear citations throughout (footnotes, endnotes, bibliography)

Examples of Scholarly Books or Chapters in Edited Scholarly Books

Doomsday Preppers: The Man-pocalypse (chapter in Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and the Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood)
An Academic Imposter From the Working Class: Emotional Labor and First-Generation College Students (chapter in Narratives of Marginalized Identities in Higher Education)

Finding Books in LibrarySearch

Check the book itself to confirm it's scholarly (there's no "peer-reviewed" filter for books)
Filter results by selecting "Books" under Resource Type
Use subject tags from helpful books to find similar resources