The process of finding the most relevant sources of information for research paper writing is indeed tiring. But when it comes to finding the most credible and authentic source of information, it seems near impossible, especially to young researchers. No matter how difficult the process of finding the authenticity of a source is, you must deal with it as it is a critical step in research paper writing. Thus, in this article, in addition to ways of finding an authentic research paper source, we will also discuss whether Google is an authentic or credible source for research paper writing or not.
What Is The Most Reliable Source For A Research Paper?
According to the definition, a reliable source is one that is based on thorough and logical reasoning of theory, argument and discussion in the light of solid evidence. There are several sources that you can consider the most reliable sources. The following are some sources that best fit the definition of reliable sources for research paper writing:
- Science Direct
- Google Scholar
- Microsoft Academics
- Taylor and Francis Online
- Academia
- Scopus
- SAGE Publishing
- JSTOR
These are some reliable sources for research paper writing that fall under the database category. Moreover, there are a few more important categories to properly classify diversified, reliable sources of research. For example, BBC News, CNN, The Guardian, Google News, and The Economist are some credible news sources that can help provide you with scientific data. Similarly, for the natural sciences research, the authentic sources’ list includes National Geographic, Popular Science, NASA, Popular Science, and Scientific Americans are authentic in the true sense. In a few simple words, credible or authentic sources must pass the CRAAP Test. The CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Thus, if you find all five properties of the CRAAP test in a source, then you can surely use it in research paper writing.
Can Google Be Used For Research?
Yes, Google is a powerful tool to search relevant sources for your studies. Google Search engine is the simplest platform, while Google Books and Google News are also known for showing fast search results (within a fraction of a second) for your research. Apart from these, Google scholar is considered a database in many cases. Irrespective of the discipline, Google, by its Scholarly articles database, is providing the fast result in the form of a single screen.
Google is easy to use, but sometimes it presents too much information. Finding the right body of information is indeed daunting. Thus, there are some useful tips to make Google research easier.
- Use more than one key term for Google searching.
- Search by country, search by time and search for a specific file type can help you in searching at source Google.
- Direct bibliographic search is another important way for researching at Google.
Thus, Google is an authentic research paper writing source. But the major drawback of using Google scholar is it provides generic information rather than discipline-specific data. Therefore, most people prefer to get PhD dissertation help.
Is Google Considered A Scholarly Source?
The academic community is not yet sure about what really Google is. Some consider it a reliable scholarly source, while others call it simply a search engine. The reason for this dilemma is even on the Google Scholar website, Google does not declare that its academic services are databases while Medicine, Scopus and other databases do so.
Google, even at its scholarly version, missed some core academic database features. First, the search scope of Google Scholar is only limited to university or academic repositories and publishers. Thus, Google Scholar, just like the Google search engine, shows academic or research sources based on the number of citations and the popularity of the journal or publisher. Second, Google Scholar does not provide field-specific knowledge. Rather, it will not be wrong to say that Google provides as generic knowledge as possible.
Despite all these missing core database functions, you can find books, academic papers, thesis drafts, and online repositories with one click on Google Scholar. Hence, it is better to know Google as an academic source instead of a scholarly source. The academic source may or may not contain articles written by a professor or scholarly person, while a scholarly article must be written by a scholarly person, and Google lies in the former category.
You can also read Explanation of Academic Referencing and Its Significance.
What Sources Should I Use For A Research Paper?
Research paper writing is an overwhelming process. But the characteristics of scholarly sources can help you in knowing what sources you can use for a research paper. In research paper writing, you can use the source having the following properties:
- A publication of an expert with affiliation or credentials
- A well-structured or formal text in scholarly language, subject-specific language and vocabulary
- An article containing verified and reliable evidence. The overview of the citations is the best method to judge the reliability of the sources.
- Peer-reviewed articles are also a good source of information for research. The peer-reviewed articles are the ones reviewed and accessed by an individual or team of experts.
As a whole, we can say that peer-reviewed articles and discipline-specific articles are good sources that you can use for research paper writing. Besides, the recent body of literature published in the last 6-10 years with good impact factors is also a good research source. You can also use the information at the official website of a company, news and other credible websites.
Digital libraries also have a vast collection of books. For using digital libraries as a source for research paper writing, you can contact the librarian at a respected university. You can also reach the librarians by using their official emails id. In short, the credible sources for your research include the scholar databases, official websites and books available at digital and on-campus libraries. Apart from all, any website containing Edu. or govt. in the URL are reliable, and you can use its information in research paper writing without any doubt.
