How to Evaluate Sources

Evaluating the Publisher of a Scholarly or Professional Journal Article

Experienced researchers know that the publisher of a source—the person, organization, government agency, or corporation that prints or electronically distributes a source—plays an important role in shaping its content. Like authors, publishers usually have a bias about a particular topic or issue.

When the publisher is a scholarly or professional journal, you can often gain an understanding of what kinds of articles it publishes by looking over the contents of several issues of the journal or by reading a few of the articles found within it. In addition, check to see who is on the Editorial Board to determine what viewpoints the individual editors might bring to the publication.

Language and Learning Across the Disciplines is hosted by the WAC Clearinghouse, which is supported by the University Composition Program at Colorado State University. You can see the Editorial Board for the journal below.

Like authors, publishers have biases. Unlike authors, they often advertise them. Many publishers have a mission statement on their Web sites.

Anthony found that the mission statement for Language and Learning Across the Disciplines claims that it is "A journal about interdisciplinarity, situated discourse communities and writing across the curriculum programs." This tells him that the journal is not specific to only one academic community, which means it is probably more general in nature and in the language it uses.

Click on the Continue button to view a demonstration of evaluating the timeliness and comprehensiveness of the article.