BME 637

 Evaluating Resources

 1) What is a credible source, and what is it not? Credible means the information is from an authoritative source.
 a) A credible source is …

• A peer-reviewed journal article.
• A website of a governmental organization (U.S. Food and Drug Administration,  The Office of Animal Health and Food Safety, etc.)
• A website of a relief organization that might collect its own data (USAID,  UNICEF, MSF, etc. 

            b) What a credible source is NOT…

• A newspaper or magazine article (Newspaper and magazine articles are NOT peers in the discipline and they are not journals.)
• Content posted in a .com (...usually – there are some exceptions.)
  An editorial, commentary, book review, or abbreviated article in a journal.  (Not all articles in a peer reviewed journal are peer-reviewed)
• Ulrich’s Serial Analysis System: identifying journals that contain peer-reviewed literature.
• A blog (Content is based on opinions.)
• Content from Wikipedia (any person can post to Wikipedia)

2) Websites (These are video clips)

 Evaluating Websites

 Why can’t I just Google?  

             3) Using Internet Sources: Evaluating Information: Applying The CRAAP Test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose)

• Self-published material (this means it hasn't been edited or reviewed by someone else)
• No author named
• Inflammatory or emotional language
• Statistics, facts, or research referred to but not cited
• Opinions presented as fact
• Statements/conclusions that contradict other credible sources

Want to find out if a particular journal is peer reviewed? You can look up the journal title (not the article title) in UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory.

Once you find an entry for the journal title in UlrichsWeb, look at the symbols on the left and see if there is a symbol for a referee shirt like those worn by sports referees:

If you find this symbol that means the journal is refereed, which is another way of saying it is peer reviewed.