You Will Need To Review The Information Provided For Every Source For Each Member Of

 You will need to review the information provided for every source for each member of your group.  Questions to ask (and items on which to provide feedback):

1. Are there at least 8 sources listed? The minimum requirement for the paper is 8 but it is better to start with a longer list (12-15).
2. Are the sources at least 8 pages long? Check the pagination to make sure the source is long enough.
3. Are the sources peer-reviewed journals? Websites (aside from the linked SEP/IEP), magazines, newspapers, etc. are not valid resources for this assignment.
4. Are the sources recent (published after 2000)?  Older articles tend not to reflect current law, policy, public opinion, etc.
5. Does the source speak directly to the research topic (does the abstract address the research topic or does it appear that it is addressing something else)?  An abstract might mention a particular keyword once, but it might not be focused on that particular topic (for instance, authors will say things like "We will also see how this applies to issues like X, Y, and Z." which indicates that the article is about something that is loosely related to the research topic but not addressing it directly).
6. Is the source qualitative research instead of an ethical argument?  For instance, studies or surveys of attitudes/opinions/experiences aren't actually ethical arguments – they are descriptive research instead of prescriptive arguments (they describe the current state of affairs instead of prescribing what we ought to be doing).  Qualitative research and historical analysis will need to be translated into ethical terms – why do these opinions matter?  What is at stake?
7. Is the source comparing different countries or cultures?  Sometimes this is appropriate and sometimes it is not – if the countries or cultures are similar enough, it might be okay to draw comparisons.  However, legal systems and cultural practices or attitudes can be very different, so it might be hard to draw lessons from one culture to another.
8. Does the source require additional research (does the abstract mention other authors that the review member would need to look up in order to put this source into context)?  Authors tend to respond to other authors, so you will need to make sure that you have read both or all of the articles involved in that conversation.
9. Are there any particular sources that look strong (do they look like they would be very useful, so the review member should look at both the keywords and references to find similar sources)?  This is called drilling down on research – it is a useful tactic in finding other articles to clarify issues, strengthen arguments, expose weaknesses, etc.  One source can produce multiple hits that speak directly to the research topic which might not have appeared in the initial search.