Main points on referencing and research

Books

You could check the index pages and content table of a book on Amazon.com, to find books that could help you in your research

Using Google scholar you could find out how many times a book was cited in order to decide if that book offers reliable information

The year of the publication is important as the book could not be of any relevance if the information is out of date, especially in technology topics.

Research the authors names to check if they are experts in the area you are doing your resaerch

Internet

Make sure you are getting useful sites by typing .edu and gov, as this will show you only results that are colleges and university websites or those that are ruin by government agencies

You could easily recognise reliable sites by checking that the name of the editor, the date the information was published and a reference list used for the information is present on that website.

Use Google scholar to check if an information source is reliable, as it ranks the articles by the number of sourcing citing them

Journals

Though the information might seem accurate, it's always best to look for the same information in other sources to ensure that facts are supported

Is better to look for information sources from academic articles as the writers are working in respectful institutions and are able to write at a more sophisticated level. These authors had more academic training than others and their work have been reviewed by experts in the area.

Make sure that the date that the article was published is stated before you decide if the information is reliable or not

Ensure that the person presenting the information doesn't have any hidden reason to make uus believe they are stating the truth

Bibliographies

You will find a list of others books and articles that discussed the topic you are interested in

You can gain access to a list of researchers who have already covered the topic you are interested in