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Investigating the Author
Investigating the Author
- Who is the author (or authors)?
- If there is no author listed, what organization has published the information?
What can you find out about the author (or organization)?
- What are their credentials? Where did they go to school and what degree(s) did they earn?
- Where are they working and what is their job title? Where have they worked in the past?
- Who is in their network? Who are their connections? Who follows them? Whom do they follow?
1) What Else Has the Author Published?
1) What Else Has the Author Published?
- What publications do they appear in? What do you know or what can you find out about those publications?
- Is their area of expertise clear from their body of work?
- HINT: When searching Google Scholar and/or Google News (linked below), not all results will be written by the author you are searching. To find the author's name in a search result, use CTRL+F to search for the name on the page.
- Search for the author to see what else they have written or how they have been cited in academic-type publications and journals.
- Search for the author to see what else they have written or how they have been cited in news-type websites and publications.
2) Investigate the Author's Online Footprint
2) Investigate the Author's Online Footprint
- Search for the author to see what type of presence they have online.
- What content are they connected with and what is the quality of that content?
- Explore links to their social media and see what they are posting, who they are following and who is following them.
Did you find a Twitter account for the author? Try searching Twitter for their @ handle:
- From these accounts
- To these accounts
- Mentioning these accounts
Who is in their community? What conversations are they part of?
3) Search Google to Find Out More
3) Search Google to Find Out More
To learn more about an author's educational and/or professional experience, try Google searches with the name of the author filling in the blank:
To learn more about an author's educational and/or professional experience, try Google searches with the name of the author filling in the blank:
- __________ linkedin (if you get a link, check out their LinkedIn profile)
- __________ resume
- __________ curriculum vitae (a fancy resume for academics)
- __________ university -OR- __________ college
- __________ site:.edu
HINTS:
- Try putting the author's name in quotes when searching.
- For more common names, you may also need to add extra details when searching. For instance, if you know their workplace, the publication they write for, or the city they live in, try adding those words to their name when searching.
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