1) How would one define or ascertain that an article is from an academically authoritative source? In other words, what specific properties make an article academically authoritative?
An authoritative source is one that is credible and applicable. Often this will include an expert in a particular field, however this alone does not make it academically authoritative. There are many blogs and podcasts maintained by respected experts, but often these may contain opinion, speculation, and conjecture, limiting their ability to be used as an academically authoritative source. Articles from peer reviewed journals are going to be highly academically authoritative as they have not only had to meet the (typically) stringent requirements of the journal in order to be published, but have also had to be reviewed and approved by other experts in the field. Additionally these types of articles generally have extensive citations demonstrating the care and research that has gone into the paper, but furthermore gives the reader the ability to review the sources to determine if the conclusions reached in the article are credible.
2) For the benefit of the class in their search for academically authoritative sources of articles, please list 2-3 sources which you feel are academically authoritative.
The easiest way to search for academically authoritative sources of information is to go to the Regis library website and utilize the research tools available there as this provides access to numerous journals and libraries. Academic Search Premier provides access to nearly 4,700 journals. The ACM Digital Library provides access to ACM journal and articles. Computer Database has articles from 350 computer industry periodicals. The IEEE Magazine Collection provides full text articles from 14 of the comptuer science periodicals published by the IEEE.