Understanding Types of Resources
You need to know what a source is to assess its utility and reliability. For example, press releases and newspaper articles look similar, but one promotes a company, product, or service and the other provides fact-checked information.
The following list of characteristics and examples will help you understand and evaluate sources of information.
One quick way to verify the credibility of a source is by reviewing the company’s “About Us” page on their website. For example, a company describing itself as a “media platform” focused on offering a newsletter is often targeting a specific audience to promote their services, or to sell ads. Such a source is generally less credible than a traditional newspaper because it does not have to adhere to journalistic standards of neutrality and accuracy.
Note that library databases do not always categorize sources correctly.
Trade Journals & Magazines (AKA Trade Publications)
Characteristics
- focused on news and information for a single industry or field, such as marketing, accounting, or information systems
- written for people who work in a specific field
- written by professionals in the field, or by journalists who have developed a specialty in that field
- written to be easily read by insiders or professionals working in that industry or field
- associated, often, with a professional organization
- adheres to established journalistic standards of neutrality and accuracy
- maintains editorial standards and uses reliable evidence (just because a website claims to offer information for a specific industry doesn’t mean it offers quality information)
- has a print version (usually) or is formatted as an online magazine
- may require a subscription to gain full access beyond a paywall
Aviation Business Journal
Cheese Market News
Beverage Digest
Nation’s Restaurant News
Pet Boarding and Day Care Magazine
Pizza Today
Professional Organizations
Characteristics
- nonprofit association, society, or group
- facilitates networking and professional development for professionals in a specific field or industry
- advances and maintains the profession through conferences, publications, online forums, and social media
- provides certifications and/or continuing education
- promotes an ethical code
Professional organizations should accept individual membership. Organizations that only allow employees of companies or organizations do not count for this category.
American Public Gardens Association
American Society of Theatre Consultants
Associated Builders and Contractors
Cereal & Grains Association
Event Service Professionals Association
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association
National Notary Association
Popular Magazines
Characteristics
- covers broadly focused topics (business, sports, politics, fashion, arts, tech) for a general audience
- does not require specialized knowledge to understand
- is written by journalists and adheres to journalistic standards of neutrality and accuracy
- follows an editing and fact checking process
- provides source attribution in text and/or through hyperlinks; no parenthetical citations or bibliography
- has a print version
- publishes weekly, fortnightly, or monthly
Architectural Digest
The Economist
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Ebony
Harvard Business Review
The New Yorker
Sports Illustrated
Vogue
Medium, like Substack, is an unregulated platform that anyone can use to publish whatever they want. They have a page with suggested editorial standards, but they don’t have a fact-checking team and no editors enforce editorial standards prior to publication. Credible experts with strong credentials and authority may use Medium to publish, but Medium itself is not a credible source.
Even if you know you’re looking at a solid resource like the Wall Street Journal or the Harvard Business Review, you still have to vet individual articles. Credible publications publish many types of articles; some are fact checked and some are not. Avoid the following types of articles, which receive little or no fact checking and may contain false claims or heavily slanted viewpoints:
- Editorials. Editorials appear in news publications, but they aren’t news articles themselves. Special editorial boards write them, and, at reputable publications, news reporters aren’t allowed to contribute. Editorials aren’t bound by the rules of objectivity or balance that publications often apply to their news content.
- Opinion essays or Op-Eds. Opinion essays appear in news publications, but aren’t reported news articles. Instead, they comment on current events. Although the authors may be credible experts or experienced journalists, these essays are not fact checked.
- Content marketing. Content marketing or sponsored content is paid for by individuals or companies to promote their products or services. See this page for details and examples.
- Press releases. Press releases are articles written by companies or organizations about their own products, services, or initiatives, and the publications in which they appear don’t fact-check their claims or get outside perspectives. Here is an example of a press release placed by real estate company RE/MAX.
Newspapers
Characteristics
- publishes daily or almost daily
- offers a print edition
- has an editing and fact-checking process
- covers a range of international, national, local, and business news, as well as sports, fashion, food, arts, lifestyle, etc.
- lists reporters or staff writers on the byline
- attributes sources in text and/or through links
See below for examples of major U.S. newspapers, which are appropriate and relevant for most research topics.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Chicago Tribune
The Durango Herald
The Los Angeles Times
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Wisconsin State Journal
Library databases contain articles from newspapers around the world. Avoid international newspapers unless your research purpose demands an international perspective. In other words, don’t cite an Indian newspaper because it was the first result in your keyword database search on a general business topic. Do look for articles in Indian newspapers if you are researching, for example, a major Indian conglomerate like the Tata Group.
The databases also include articles from wire services and news agencies. These companies provide syndicated news to various media outlets; until these articles are published in a newspaper they are not newspaper articles.
Some wire services, like Reuters, provide legitimate news. Others, such as PR Newswire, offer company press releases, which are not credible news.
The best way to avoid citing a problematic source is to use database articles from known credible sources, such as the newspapers listed below.
Content Marketing
Characteristics
Sponsored content, content marketing, or native advertising is an article, blog post, podcast episode, or social media post that is designed to promote a product or service. Designed to blend into the publication’s other content, this material has no relationship to the journalists, authors, or editors of the publication where it appears.
Because content marketing is sometimes difficult to recognize, see the “Identifying Content Marketing” page for tips.
Blogs
Characteristics
Blogs can be valid sources for research. However, you have to be a discerning consumer of resources, evaluate their credibility carefully, and be sure you know how to identify content marketing.
The best blogs will be either the work of one or two individuals whose credentials you can verify or will be associated with another reliable media source, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or the Associated Press. For most types of research, avoid blogs with corporate authors, which function as content marketing.
Podcasts
Characteristics
Similar to blogs, be a discerning consumer of this type of resource, and evaluate their credibility carefully.
Good podcasts can be a place to find informative conversations among experts in a wide variety of fields. Look for podcasts where you can verify the credentials of the guests and the hosts. Some podcasts also claim they are fact checked, which would be another signal of reliability, if you can confirm it.
Like blogs, podcasts are also often associated with other credible sources of information–The New York Times puts out The Daily, for example, and The Wall Street Journal offers What’s News.
Also like blogs, podcasts can serve as content marketing. For most research purposes, you would want to avoid podcasts affiliated with companies.
Scholarly Journals
Characteristics
- written by professors for professors and university-affiliated researchers
- peer reviewed
- created for an academic audience
- focuses on research for a specific field of study
- uses jargon and academic language
- contains lengthy articles (often 15-30 pages) that include an abstract and extensive citations and references
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Business and Professional Ethics Journal
Classical and Quantum Gravity
European Journal of Epidemiology
International Review of Administrative Sciences
Journal of Applied Econometrics
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Yale Journal of International Law
On this page
Related pages
More information
This guide details strategies for effective workplace communication and approaches for research in professional settings.
Social Media
Characteristics
Social media accounts can sometimes be valid sources for research depending on the context of your query and audience of your research. However, you have to be a discerning consumer of such sources, evaluate their credibility carefully, and be sure you know how to identify content marketing.
Useful social media accounts, on a variety of platforms (LinkedIn, X, Instagram, etc.), provide a place for experts to offer insights. Look at their bio and verify credentials before citing an individual’s account.
Following the account of another reliable source can also be a way to stay up to date on different types of news. For example, you might follow the Harvard Business Review on X to stay current on topics they cover. You also might follow an individual journalist, if you know they cover your field regularly.
Avoid corporate social media accounts for research unless you are specifically interested in how a company is using social media or what that company is promoting.