Sources of information are paramount to the quality and reliability of your research papers. You can synthesize diverse information and ideas by using reliable sources. So it is essential to use reliable sources for your academic writing. For this, you can find peer-reviewed academic journals from Google Scholar or the library databases. These are especially useful because they are reviewed by experts. To decide the trustworthiness of your sources, you can ask the following questions:
1. Who: who are the authors?; are they experts?; who are the publishers?; are they reputable?
2. What: what information are you trying to look for?; are they relevant to your writing?
3. When: are the information and ideas up-to-date? Are they a significant milestone in the history of the topic?
4. Where: did you find the information on the website?, blog? or other sources?
5. How: was the research conducted?; which methods are used?; what was the sample size?; are they appropriate or representative?
6. Why: what are the motivations behind this writing?; Are there any biases or opinions?
So, when choosing a source, it is also very important to use the TRAAP Test to decide its reliability: timeliness, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose.
It is also important to use a consistent style of citation such as Chicago.
