Critical evaluation of the whole reference list

It is important to evaluate the individual sources, but you should also critically evaluate all the sources you used as a whole. Imagine that people would read all the references in your reference list and nothing else. Would they get a good overview of the topic?

Based on research

Your thesis should build on previous research. This means that you should have an significant amount of scientific material in your reference list. In most research areas, this would mostly be scientific articles, but depending on the field, conference contributions and books can also be important. Since you should cite the original sources of information, original articles or other publications where results are first reported should be represented.

Balanced and fair representation of the research field

Is the representation of the research on the topic balanced and fair? You should for example include sources written by different research groups and authors, even if you consider one research group or author most important. 

For some information, research results are probably inconclusive. Have you presented the different results? Please note that a balanced and fair representation doesn't mean giving equal weight to all results. If the majority of the research came to the same conclusions and a few studies differ from that, you should focus on the majority of the studies.

The same principles apply if you for example describe the industry or common methods used. Try to give a balanced and fair overview of the industry or common methods.

Include recent research

Your description of previous research should include recent sources if there is new research on the topic, If most of your sources are older, perform searches to make sure you didn't miss newer research.

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