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Agricultural Business Research Guide

Resources for students in the agricultural business program

Scholarly vs Popular Articles

The following sites have more information regarding the differences between scholarly and popular sources of information:

Evaluation Criteria

These are general criteria for evaluating sources. They can be applied to information that you find in books, magazine and journal articles, and websites.

  • Authority
    • Person(s) or organization
    • Background and qualifications
    • Reputation of the author or publisher

  • Purpose
    • Popular or scholarly treatment
      • Level of writing and the intended audience
    • Writing style
      • Informative or persuasive
      • Objective or arguing a side
  • Currency
    • Publication date
    • Currency of the references
    • Updates to information found on websites

  • Accuracy
    • Presence of references
    • Peer review system for scholarly literature
    • Quality of writing

YouTube Resources

For those of you who learn better visually, here are some short (>2 minute) videos about identifying articles and citations.

Your Librarian

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Jeffrey Kushkowski
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Contact:
Professor
Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
Business and Economics Librarian
150 Parks Library
515 294-2408