Remember: when in doubt, you can search by ISSN to make sure you find the right entry in Ulrich's!
Ask yourself the following. All of these give you some idea of the author’s qualifications and potential biases.
Where does the author work?
What is the author's educational background?
What else has the author written?
FOR AUTHORS OF BOOKS:
Check for biographical information in the book or on the cover.
Search the library catalog to locate other books by the same author or books ABOUT the author.
Check Contemporary Authors, Credo Reference or Gale Virtual Reference Library databases under the author's name.
Look for a book review on one of the author's books. Lengthier reviews may provide information on the background of the author you are researching. (See a Reference Librarian for help in locating reviews)
Follow some of the steps outlined in "FOR AUTHORS OF ARTICLES".
FOR AUTHORS OF ARTICLES:
If the article you find is available full text or full image, you may find information about the author at the beginning or the end of the article. This is particularly true for journal articles.
If you’re using a database to find articles, with the article up on the screen, try clicking on the author's name. You may find other articles written by him/her which may contain biographical information. You may also find that the author seems to write exclusively for one publication or on one particular subject area.
Do a search on Google or other search engine. A word of caution: there may be many people with the same name. You may need to identify other keywords to add to your search in order to focus on your author.
If you can’t find anything, you can always ask for help from a Reference Librarian.
Consider: if you can’t find anything, maybe the lack of information on the author is telling you something?
Content adapted from “Finding Author Credentials” http://middlesexlibrary.blogspot.com/2007/09/finding-author-credentials.html .