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)
