PACT PACT Research Skills 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best defines a primary source?
- A textbook summary of historical events
- An original, firsthand account or direct evidence such as a diary or original study (Correct answer)
- A peer-reviewed article that cites other studies
- An encyclopedia entry about a topic
Correct answer: An original, firsthand account or direct evidence such as a diary or original study
Primary sources are original, uninterpreted materials — such as diaries, raw data, speeches, or original research — created at the time of an event.
Question 2: When evaluating a website as a research source, which factor is most important for assessing credibility?
- The visual design of the site
- The author's credentials and the site's affiliation (Correct answer)
- The number of advertisements on the page
- How recently the site was redesigned
Correct answer: The author's credentials and the site's affiliation
Author credentials and organizational affiliation indicate whether the content was produced by a qualified, accountable source.
Question 3: A researcher wants to find peer-reviewed academic articles. Which resource is most appropriate?
- Wikipedia
- Google Images
- A university library database such as JSTOR or EBSCO (Correct answer)
- A personal blog
Correct answer: A university library database such as JSTOR or EBSCO
Academic library databases index peer-reviewed journals, ensuring content has been evaluated by experts before publication.
Question 4: What does it mean for a source to be 'peer-reviewed'?
- It was written by students for other students
- Experts in the same field evaluated the work before publication (Correct answer)
- It has been cited more than 100 times
- It was published by a government agency
Correct answer: Experts in the same field evaluated the work before publication
Peer review is a quality-control process in which subject-matter experts assess a manuscript's accuracy and rigor before it is published.
Question 5: Which of the following is an example of plagiarism?
- Quoting a source with quotation marks and a citation
- Summarizing a source in your own words with a citation
- Copying a paragraph from a source without attribution (Correct answer)
- Using a statistic from a source with an in-text citation
Correct answer: Copying a paragraph from a source without attribution
Using another person's words or ideas without proper credit, regardless of intent, constitutes plagiarism.
Question 6: The CRAAP test is used to evaluate sources. What does the second 'A' in CRAAP stand for?
- Authorship
- Accuracy
- Authority (Correct answer)
- Availability
Correct answer: Authority
The CRAAP test stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose — the two A's are Authority and Accuracy.
PACT PACT Research Skills 1
Which of the following best defines a primary source?