LibGuides: College Research: Reliable Sources

Popular & Scholarly Sources

You will need to use reliable sources for your college research. Reliable sources are written by experts or go through some fact-checking process. Most of the sources that you find using Google will not meet these criteria and are therefore not considered reliable.

Reliable sources can be grouped into two categories: popular sources and scholarly sources.

Popular Sources

Popular sources include newspapers, encyclopedias, and magazines. They are written by journalists and provide background information. They are reliable because newspapers and magazines fact-check their stories before they are published. Encyclopedias are reliable because they are written by experts on the topic.

Newspapers are mostly factual and provide detailed, on-the-ground information from the day the article was written
Encyclopedias are factual and provide a short overview of a topic
Magazines provide an overview of the topic often with the analysis of experts

Click on the tabs above to find these three types of sources in the library.

Magazine articles can provide you with reliable reporting, and often go more in-depth than a newspaper article. SOWELA students and faculty have access to many popular magazines such as

Click on the links below to explore the SOWELA Library's complete collection of journals and magazines.

Full List of Popular Magazines (PDF)

Journals & Magazines Listed by Discipline/Subject

Use these databases to find current and historical newspaper articles.

African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full page scans of African-American Newspaper articles published between 1827- 1998, includes Freedom’s Journal the first African-American owned and operated newspaper in the United States.
American Historical Newspapers – Louisiana This link opens in a new window
Full scans of Louisiana Newspapers, ranging from 1805 to 1900.
American Press This link opens in a new window
News and information from the Lake Charles, Louisiana, American Press newspaper. Full access only available on SOWELA's campus!
NewsBank This link opens in a new window
NewsBank provides web-based access to current and archived content from more than 2,000 newspaper titles, as well as newswires, transcripts, business journals, periodicals, government documents and other publications.
Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides cover-to-cover full text for 35 national & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 375 regional (U.S.) newspapers.
Newswires This link opens in a new window
Powered by EBSCOhost for students and researchers, Newswires provides near real-time access to top world-wide news including sources like Associated Press, United Press International, PR Newswire, Xinhua, CNN Wire, and Business Wire.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles and abstracts from newspapers, magazines, and reference sources, includes legal resources, company profiles, and biographies.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Provides access to over 570 highly regarded reference titles including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotations, and more!
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Provides access to over 600,000 documents, including the arts, sciences, and technology
Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text biographies, magazine articles, images, and website links for more than 900,000 people.
Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Provides current biographical information, overviews, and full-text literary criticism and reviews of more than 130,000 writers.
Scribners Writer Series This link opens in a new window
Provides 15 to 20 page essays and critical reviews on over 2,000 authors and literary genres.

Websites, like all potential sources, must be evaluated to determine reliability. While not scholarly sources, information found on the internet can still be used as a source for your research if it meets certain standards. Consider these 4 aspects about an online source to determine if it is reliable:

Author
Motivation or Bias
Evidence
Timeliness

1. Author

Is the author listed?
Is the author an individual or a group?
What makes the author an expert?

2. Motivation or Bias

Is this opinion or fact?
Is the source supported by an organization or company? What do they stand to gain from this?
Websites ending in ".edu" or ".gov" will more likely present a neutral point of view (but not always).
Are your own biases making you critical about the source before examining the evidence?

3. Evidence

Does the source provide any evidence such as citations or links? Do the links work?
Was the information reviewed by experts?
Can you confirm the information in another source?

4. Timeliness

When was the information published or last updated?
Is the information up to date?

Scholarly Sources

Scholarly sources (also called "peer reviewed") report the scientific evidence and conclusions of scholars and researchers. Most importantly, this research has been reviewed by other scholars in the same field of study before it was published to ensure that it is accurate and reliable.

Peer reviewed articles are published in scholarly journals and are typically 15-30 pages
Scholarly books are published by a university press

The video below will tell you more about peer reviewed sources and how to find them in the library.