Research

Authority

The article that I picked is scholarly. I found in Ulrich's Periodical Directory that the magazine it is published in is peer reviewed which is a qualification for seeing if it is a scholarly article. The point of view in the article is that driving while talking on cell phones causes more accidents than not talking on cell phones.

Reliability

When evaluating the reliability, I saw that the article documented many different sources that were used in the article. At the end of the article, there was a list of references that could be further researched if needed. I didn't think that the article was completely objective. However, the reader must consider the purpose of the article. The article was written to inform readers of the dangers of operating a vehicle and talking on a cell phone. Therefore, it is rather difficult to keep an objective view on that topic. I also saw that this was a secondary source because it was analyzing other sources in the article. It discussed surveys that were conducted by other references.

Coverage

The topic was thoroughly covered in this article and many different aspects of distractions were discussed. The data that was used in the article was summarized from other resources that the authors retrieves and referenced. In an article such as this, to cover all data from the resources would be silly due to the fact that the information is plentiful and the reader could easily search the sources for more detailed information.

Currency

The article was published in June 2001, and has not been updated in this specific article since. However, this doesn't seem as important to me when researching this specific topic because I need current information but it doesn't have to be within the last year. That is only important with technology and health topics as they change rather quickly.

This article is relevant to my research question because I wanted to know if cell phone usage had an effect on driving abilities, and if it caused the driver to be less alert. This article is an excellent resource because it documents many surveys conducted on accidents and cell phone usage. It also discussed who could be at fault in such cases. I also have many resources that I could turn to for more detailed information