Applied Economic Analysis

Scholarly Articles
First and foremost: Accountability and content of the specific article are the key criteria used to determine if an article is scholarly.

1. The audience of the journal will be geared toward researchers and professionals in the field. There will be little or no advertisements.
2. The content of the journal will be research projects, methodology, and theory articles written by contributing authors. Articles are usually based on original research using established methodology that supports conclusions arrived at by the author.
3. Accountability, meaning that articles are peer review or refereed and every article has an extensive bibliography.

Simple things to look at are the appearance of the journal: plain cover, plain paper, black/white graphics and illustrations, pages consecutive throughout each volume, and length of the article can be an indicator of type--longer articles (more than ten pages) will tend to be scholarly. A note about Peer Review: "Peer review" refers to the policy of having experts in the field examine journal articles before acceptance for publication. Peer review insures that the research described in a journal's articles is sound and of high quality. Sometimes the term "refereed" is used instead of peer review.

Evaluation of Websites

The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created many debates in the academic world. Researchers must always remember that the Web is a vast, unregulated information resource that ANYONE with the proper tools and a little money can create a site on the Web. Much like scholarly articles, accountability and content of the webpage are the key criteria used to determine if a site When viewing a site for research purposes the three most important features to consider are:

Authority: Who's responsible for the page content? Are there any clues about that person's qualifications?
Content: Does it seem accurate? If you don't know much about the topic yet, consider these other questions. Are there citations to other works? Has the page been updated recently? Are there facts you could try to verify?
Audience/Objectivity: Who designed it? And for whom? Is there obvious (or not so obvious) bias? Is the page nothing more than a marketing tool? What level of audience is it designed for (e.g. children, adults, students, professionals)?