Evaluating for Relevancy and Timeliness

We begin our discussion of relevancy with a reading on how the currency of the resources you find, which we just discussed, also helps determine whether they are relevant to your research.  The concepts of relevancy and timeliness go hand-in-hand.

This reading also discusses how to establish ethos for the magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals you find. You should use the same evaluation criteria used to vet these materials, even when the types of information differ. Read these tips for judging their relevance to your topic.

Relevant sources are those that pertain to your research question. You will be able to figure that out fairly quickly by reading or skimming particular parts of sources and maybe jotting down little tables that help you keep track. We will show you how below, including where to look in specific kinds of sources and what questions to ask yourself as you do.

One thing to consider early on as you make inferences about relevancy is the effect that timeliness, or a source's currency, should have on deciding whether a source is relevantYour research question will determine that.

For instance, if your research question is about the life sciences, you probably should consider only the most recent sources relevant because the life sciences are changing so quickly. There is a good chance that anything but the most recent sources may be out of date. So aim for sources no more than 5 years old. (An example discipline that calls for even newer sources is computer security.)

But suppose your research question is about the Edo Period in Japan (1603-1868) or about Robert Falcon Scott, who explored the Antarctic from 1901-1913. In these cases, an item from 1918 might be just as useful as an item from 2018 (although new information may have been found in the 100-year gap). But something from 1899 about Antarctica or from 1597 about Japan would NOT be current enough for these research questions.

These example research questions also give you two more clues about how to treat the timeliness or currency of sources as you consider relevance:

  • Because of how long ago they lived or occurred, it would be unusual for many sources on Robert Scott or the Edo Period to have been published very recently. So, unlike sources for the life sciences, whether a source is very recent should probably not determine its relevancy to those research questions.

  • Primary sources might be considered especially relevant to all three research questions. Life science journal articles that provide research findings for the first time count as primary sources. And primary sources (such as Scott's diaries and expedition photographs, as well as paintings, literature, clothing, and household items from the Edo Period) go a long way to explain faraway people and times.

For your sources for which timeliness matters, see the section Where to Look, which includes where to look in websites, articles, and books for information about a source's currency.

 

Time-Saving Tips

You usually do not have to read the entire resource to figure out whether it is relevant – you can usually get away with reading or skimming only parts of each resource. If you are looking at the right parts, you should have enough information to make an educated guess about relevancy.

But what should you be looking for? One way to figure that out is to first parse your research question so you can figure out its main concepts. In other words, you are identifying the main concepts in your research question to search precisely.

For example, suppose your research question is: How does having diverse members in a group increase the critical thinking of the group?

What are this question's main concepts? Our answer is: group diversity and critical thinking.

So when trying to judge which sources are relevant to these main concepts, you would assess whether each source you have found pertains to at least one of these concepts. We recommend you jot down a little table like the one in the example below to keep track of which sources address each main concept.

To be considered relevant to your research question, a source would not necessarily have to cover all of your main concepts, but finding sources that do is the ideal. Otherwise, you just have to make do with what you have got. Do not forget that each source would have to pass the currency test, too, if currency is important to your research question. So it is wise to record your decisions about the sources' currency on your tables, too.

 

Example: Sources' Main Concepts and Currency

Research question: How does having diverse members in a group increase the critical thinking of the group?

  Currency Okay Group Diversity Critical Thinking
Source A title X X  
Source B title X    
Source C title X X X



The table in this hypothetical example indicates that both Sources A and C are relevant because each pertains to at least one main concept from the research question. Currency does not seem to matter much to our research question, so all three sources were marked current. But since currency is all that Source B has to offer, it is not relevant for this project.

If you do make little tables for relevance, it is probably a good idea to hang on to them. You might find them helpful later in your research process.

 

Where to Look in Websites, Articles, and Books

The information below tells where to look and what questions to ask yourself to assess three kinds of sources' relevancy to your research question. Whatever you do, do not stop evaluating a source after looking only a website's name or the title of another source.

Save time by looking in particular places in sources for information that will help you figure out whether the source is relevant to your research project. Much of our advice below comes from "Speedy Reading" in The Craft of Research, second edition, by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams, 2003, pp. 108–109.

On a website, check the name of the website and its articles for clues that they contain material relevant to your research question. Consider whether time should have an impact on what information can be considered relevant. If so, skim any dates, datelines, What's New pages, and press releases to see whether any website content works with the time considerations you need. Page creation or revision dates that you find can also help.

Skim any site map and index on the website for keywords related to your research question. Try the keywords of your research question in the search box. Do you see enough content about your keywords to make you think parts of the website could be helpful?

For an article, think about the title. Does it have anything to do with your research question? Consider whether time should have an impact on what sources can be considered relevant. If so, is the publication date within your parameters? Also, skim the abstract to see whether the article works with the time considerations you need. For instance, if there is a time period in your research question, does the article address the same time period, or was it created in that time period?

Look at the abstract and section headings in the article to locate the problem or question that the article addresses, its solution, and the outline of the article's argument for its main claim. Can those help answer your research question? Do they make it seem the article will give you information about what others have written about your research question? Do they offer a description of the situation surrounding your research question?

Do the article's introduction and conclusion sections help you answer your research question and/or offer a description of the situation surrounding your question so you can explain in your final product why the question is important? Check whether the bibliography contains keywords related to your research question. Do the sources cited by the bibliography pertain to your research question?

For a book, check whether the title indicates the book could be about your research question. Consider whether time should have an impact on what sources can be considered relevant. If so, is the publication date or copyright date (usually listed in the library catalog or on the back of the book's title page) too early or late for any time constraints in your research question? Maybe it is just right. Also, skim some of the preface and introduction to see whether the book works with the time considerations you need.

For help answering your research question, skim the book's table of contents and any summary chapters to locate the problem or question that the book addresses, its solution, and the broad outline of the book's argument for its main claim. Do they also give you information about what others have written about your research question? Do they offer a description of the situation surrounding your research question? Look for your keywords in the bibliography. Do the sources cited pertain to your research question? Skim the index for topics with the most page references. Do the topics with the most page references pertain to your research question?


Source: Ohio State University, https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/chapter/evaluating-for-relevancy/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Last modified: Thursday, January 28, 2021, 12:44 PM