How many sources for a research paper

Example: A stand-alone literature review that has 10 pages of content the body of the paper should examine at least 30 sources. These are not hard and fast rules by any means. Also, it is worth mentioning that as students and scholars who care about the quality of our work, we want to aim to raise the bar, not simply meet a minimum suggested standard. If you do, your search for relevant literature in your field may be incomplete and you need to keep digging.

Of course, your sources have to be relevant to your topic, too. Not every scholar or academic supervisor would agree with the guidelines I offer here, criticizing them as being too reductionist or simplistic.

When in doubt, talk with your own instructor or supervisor, asking them what their expectations are. Remember: Aim for quality over quality… and to do a quality literature review, you need to have a substantive quantity of sources. This post had had over 52, views since I wrote it. Why not share it? Update — January — This blog has had over 1. In academic publishing, the goal of peer review is to assess the quality of articles submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.

Before an article is deemed appropriate to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, it must undergo the following process:. Because a peer-reviewed journal will not publish articles that fail to meet the standards established for a given discipline, peer-reviewed articles that are accepted for publication exemplify the best research practices in a field.

Scholarly articles are a great resource for finding in-depth, current information on a topic. Scholarly articles have a more narrow focus than books, so you can try searching for more specific topics.

The McQuade Library subscribes to over databases that range from general to subject-specific. How can you tell if a book is scholarly?

The fastest way is to check the publisher- if it's published by a university press e. Chicago, Harvard, etc. Another way to decide is to look at the book's intended audience and purpose. How are scholarly books different from regular books? Scholarly books are published with the goal of contributing to research and knowledge of a subject, and support future research by scholars and students, not necessarily making money. Who decides whether or not a scholarly book gets published?

All scholarly books go through an extensive process in which experts in the field read the manuscripts and decide if the book is worthy to be published. In other words, scholarly books are peer reviewed sources.

Remember, scholarly books are just one of many kinds of books available through the library. If you are unsure if the book you have found is scholarly ask a librarian or your professor. When searching for articles, it's important to know what type of source, or periodical in which the articles are published. This is beacuse each type has its own purpose, intent, audience, etc. This guide lists criteria to help you identify scholarly journals, trade journals, and magazines.

It is the first step in critically evaluating your source of information. Determining what makes a journal scholarly is not a clear-cut process, but there are many indicators which can help you. A note about "peer review. Sometimes the term "refereed" is used instead of peer review. The McQuade Library has many online periodical databases which contain scholarly journal articles.

If you have found an article and are not sure if it is scholarly or not you can find out by consulting the following books located in the Reference Room:. You can get the latest sources in online scholarly databases.

Magazines and newspapers also provide a rich source of information for your research paper. For example, if you are writing a research paper centered on current affairs, newspapers and magazines can be valuable sources of information. Today, there are digital versions of newspapers and magazines that can be easily accessed through online platforms. Finally, the library is a valuable avenue to get sources for your research paper. The reason why some students overlook the library as a source of information is that they find looking for sources on online platforms to be more convenient.

However, libraries can offer some of the best sources of information for your research paper. The most prevalent criteria used to determine the credibility of sources for a research paper is the CRAAP test. This test evaluates the qualities of a source based on its Currency, Relevance coverage , Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose objectivity.

The currency of a source is determined by the date it was published. The publishing date for a source should be current because the information it provides will be current.

Older sources may have outdated arguments that have been proven otherwise by current sources. The source should also be relevant to your topic. This includes their level of knowledge and expertise on the subject, the level of their education, and the years of practice in their respective disciplines.

Accuracy is very important because it determines whether the source provides accurate information or the information can be verifiable. Finally, the Purpose or the objectivity of the source is very important in determining the credibility of a source. Some papers will not allow sources older than 4 years, especially in the literature review, while others will allow older sources.

For example, research papers on historical issues can use very old sources because specific historical events cannot be changed through research. The first and the second world wars happened and they cannot be altered. In such cases, you can use older sources.

However, most research papers will use sources not older than 6 years. As aforementioned, different factors determine the number of sources in a research paper. However, the general rule for a normal page paper is that it will require 20 sources. This is determined by the page count where the number of sources is directly proportional to the page count.

If the page paper covers a complex or deep topic, then the sources can be as many as If the page research paper uses a lot of data and statistics, the sources can be as many as However, an ordinary page paper should have a minimum of 20 sources. The general rule that determines the number of sources for a paper is that an ordinary double-spaced page requires one source and the sources increase as the page count increases.

Therefore, a 5-page paper will have a minimum of 5 sources. However, a 5-page paper with a complex topic may require more sources. Though this is the case, a 5-page paper should have a minimum of 5 sources.

A page paper will have a minimum of 10 sources if the topic of the paper is not very complex or the paper does not employ data and statistics. As we had written in our guide on writing research papers , the use of good sources is important for a paper to be of quality. We Respect your Privacy. Let us Write your Papers! No Plagiarism. Order Now. Jessica Kasen Jessica Kasen is experienced in academic writing and academic assistance.

She is well versed in academia and has a master's degree in education. Kasen consults with us in helping students improve their grades.