Library Guides: ED 539: Institutional Research, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education and Student Affairs: Types of Information Sources

Types of Information Sources

Report of Experiment or Phenomena	Time Frame	Level of Detail	Review Process	Where to Look	Written by	Audience
Conference Proceedings	Presented immediately, sometimes published 1-2 years later	Moderate (5-20 pages)	Possible peer-review	Article Databases Conference websites	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students	Scholars, specialists, and graduate students
Journal articles	Average 3-9 months	Moderate (5-20 pages)	Formal peer-review process	Library catalog Article databases Journal website Google Scholar	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students	Scholars, specialists, and students
Review articles	Average 1-2 years	Moderate (5-20 pages)	Formal peer-review process	Library catalog Article databases Journal website Google Scholar	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students	Scholars, specialists, and students
White Papers, Technical Reports and Government Documents	Months to years	Light to Moderate (5-8 pages pages)	No formal peer-review process	Google Scholar Online collections of reports/white papers	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students	Audience varies depending on document or report
Books, eBooks (academic monographs)	Average 1-3 years	Lengthy (100+ pages)	Editorial process, not peer-review	Library catalog	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students	General public to specialists
Dissertations	Average 1-3 years	Lengthy (100+ pages)	Dissertation advisor and committee members, not peer-review	Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations database	Graduate students earning doctoral degrees	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees), graduate students
Reference Sources, Encyclopedias	Average 10 years	Brief (range from a few paragraphs to a few pages)	Editorial process, not peer-review	Library catalog Online collections of reference works	Specialists in the field (usually with doctoral degrees)	General public to specialists
Websites and Blogs	Seconds/minutes to years	Brief (range from a few paragraphs to a few pages)	none	Web search tools	Anyone	General public to specialists

Adapted from: UCLA Library