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How to Find and Evaluate Scholarly Sources (Google Scholar, Library Databases and the CRAAP Test)

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In short

  • Start with your reading list and your library's databases; use Google Scholar to widen the search.
  • “Cited by” takes you forward to newer work; reference lists take you back to the classics.
  • Set up your library link in Google Scholar to read paywalled articles legally.
  • Evaluate every source: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose.

"Use at least eight academic sources" is one of the most common lines in an essay brief, and one of the most misunderstood. Academic sources are not just anything with a reference list, and finding good ones is a skill you can learn in an afternoon.

What counts as a scholarly source?

  • Peer-reviewed journal articles: research checked by other experts before publication. The gold standard for most essays.
  • Academic books and chapters from university and scholarly presses.
  • Official statistics and reports from governments, international organisations and public bodies.
  • Grey literature such as working papers and think-tank reports: useful, but check who wrote and funded them.

News articles, blogs and encyclopaedias can help you get oriented or find leads, but most markers expect them to play a minor role, if any. Check your course handbook.

Where to search

  1. Your reading list. It is the fastest way into the key debates, and markers expect to see it used.
  2. Your library's catalogue and subject databases. Your library website lists the databases for your discipline (for example PubMed for medicine, JSTOR for humanities and social sciences, or discipline-specific indexes). They let you filter by peer review, date and type.
  3. Google Scholar. Broad and fast, good for following citation trails.

Using Google Scholar well

  • "Cited by" under each result lists the newer works that cite it. If a result feels too basic, Google Scholar's own help pages suggest following "Cited by" to newer, often more specific papers.
  • The reference list of a good article takes you backwards to the foundational work.
  • "Related articles" finds similar work you might have missed.
  • Library links. Tell Google Scholar your institution (in its settings, under library links) so it shows links to the full text your library pays for. Off campus, you may need your library's proxy or login; your library's guide explains how.
  • Search operators. Put phrases in quotation marks, use the date filter for recent work, and try synonyms.

Search strings that work

Databases reward precise searches. A few techniques cover most needs:

  • Quotation marks for exact phrases: "student accommodation".
  • AND to narrow: "student accommodation" AND affordability.
  • OR for synonyms, in brackets: (housing OR accommodation) AND (students OR undergraduates).
  • Truncation, in many databases with an asterisk: universit* finds university and universities.
  • Filters: date range, peer-reviewed only, document type, language.

Keep a short log of the searches you ran and where; it saves repeating them, and some assignments, such as systematic reviews, ask you to report your search strategy.

Example: for "Does part-time work affect academic performance?", try ("part-time work" OR employment) AND (students OR undergraduates) AND (attainment OR grades OR performance), limited to the last ten years and peer-reviewed articles. Then follow "Cited by" from the most relevant result.

How to tell if an article is peer-reviewed

Look at the journal, not just the article: its website will describe its review process. Many databases have a "peer-reviewed" filter. An abstract, a methods section, a reference list and author affiliations are good signs, but not proof on their own. If in doubt, ask a subject librarian: helping you with exactly this is their job.

Evaluate every source: the CRAAP test

The CRAAP test was created by Sarah Blakeslee at the Meriam Library, California State University, Chico. The library's handout presents it as a set of questions, weighted according to your situation:

  • Currency: When was it published or revised? Does your topic need recent information? Do the links still work?
  • Relevance: Does it address your question? Who is the intended audience? Is the level right?
  • Authority: Who is the author or publisher, and what are their credentials? What does the domain or publisher tell you?
  • Accuracy: Where does the information come from? Is it supported by evidence? Can you verify it elsewhere?
  • Purpose: Why does it exist: to inform, teach, sell, persuade? Is it fact, opinion or propaganda? Is there bias?

Use your library

University libraries offer far more than books on shelves: subject librarians who can show you the best databases for your topic, interlibrary loans for articles your library does not hold, reference management tools such as Zotero or EndNote, and workshops on searching. Most also publish subject guides listing the key databases, journals and official sources for each discipline. An hour with a subject librarian early in a project usually saves many hours of unfocused searching later.

A 60-minute search routine

  1. 10 min: list key terms and synonyms from the question.
  2. 20 min: search one subject database and Google Scholar; save promising results with their full references.
  3. 15 min: skim abstracts and conclusions; keep only what answers your question.
  4. 15 min: follow "Cited by" and reference lists from the two best articles.

Then organise what you found in a synthesis matrix, and cite as you go (see our citation guide).

Sources to treat with care

  • Undated web pages with no author.
  • Sites selling a product or service related to the claim.
  • Statistics without a named original source.
  • AI chatbot answers: they can produce plausible but non-existent references. Always find and read the original.

A note on integrity

Cite only what you have actually read. If you found a quotation in someone else's book, cite it as a secondary source following your style guide. Inventing or padding a reference list is treated as misconduct at most universities.

Sources

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