Research Guides
In the research process not everything you find on your topic will be suitable. It is important to critically evaluate the resources you discover to ensure that you are using the most appropriate materials.
Scope. What is the breadth of the article, book, website or other material? Is is a general work that provides an overview of the topic or is it specifically focused on only one aspect of your topic.
Audience. Who is the intended audience for this source? Is the material too technical or too clinical? Is it too elementary or basic?
Timeliness. When was the source published? If it is a website, when was it last updated? Avoid using undated websites. Library tools (catalogs and indexes) always indicate the publication date in the bibliograhic citation.
Scholarly vs. Popular. Scholarly resources are written by experts for experts. These sources are peer reviewed*, have extensive bibliographies, and often contain areas for further research.
Authority Who is the author? What are his or her academic credentials? What else has this author written? Sometimes information about the author is listed somewhere in the article.
By recognizing inconsistencies in tone and style, lack of emotion, and repetitive language, you can train your eyes to detect where AI is used. Additionally, you can incorporate an AI detection tool like Originality.ai or GPTZero to help identify it.
Because of how AI detectors work, they can never guarantee 100% accuracy, and there is always at least a small risk of false positives (human text being marked as AI-generated). Therefore, these tools should not be relied upon to provide absolute proof that a text is or isn't AI-generated.
Use Google Scholar to find background information on authors and researchers.