All sources, peer-reviewed or not, do require evaluation prior to use by a researcher. Yes, even scholarly sources should be evaluated using the following criteria (and perhaps more criteria not listed here).
Consider:
- date of publication
- How recent is the source? Was it written during, before, or after an event occurred?
- A 1942 article on WWII will look different from a 2021 article on WWII. Both can be valid for use in different contexts.
- author
- Who are they? What are their qualifications?
- A biochemistry student, biochemist, and economist all have different qualifications. We consider their writings regarding chemical compounds differently.
- publisher
- Like the author, what does this publisher tend to produce? Do they have a good reputation?
- Especially with academic articles, beware predatory publishers.
- purpose
- Why was this article written?
- depends on audience
- audience
- Who is this article for?
- An author will write differently to children, teenagers, adults, etc.
- The qualifications and characteristics of an audience influence the style of writing, as well.
The above questions can help us determine:
- bias
- Everything has bias. Even the most even-keeled, objective in appearance articles contain bias. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of.
- veracity
- How true and trustworthy is the source?
Essentially, we're considering the rhetorical situation: the intersections between writer, subject, and audience. See this webpage from Open English @ SLCC for a good look at the rhetorical situation.
Venn Diagram of the Rhetorical Situation from the Open English webpage:
CALVIN T. RYAN LIBRARY