1. Click on the sub-pages to explore how to evaluate your sources:

• Evaluate by Specific Criteria
• Consider Source Types: Popular, Trade and Scholarly Journals
• Analyze Scholarly Articles

2. Option: watch videos on this page for further understanding

Research 101: Credibility is contextual Video Objectives:

• Define different types of authority, such as personal experience, academic expertise or professional knowledge and choose information that is appropriate for each context, whether academic discipline and assignment, professional or personal need.
• Assess all sources of information for credibility and bias.
• Find alternative opinions, analysis and information.

Source: Anna Eisen (2014, June 13)
Standard YouTube License

Research 101: Format matters Video Objectives:

• Understand the process through which any given piece of information was created.
• Connect format to purpose and identify source types appropriate to a need.
• Recognize that information may be perceived differently based on the format in which it is packaged.
• Understand that different methods of information dissemination with different purposes are available for their use.

Source: Anna Eisen (2014, June 5) 
Standard YouTube License

Why Evaluate Sources?

Your academic career and personal reputation depend on it!

• If you use poor quality sources, your research paper could contain errors, overly-biased information or out-of-date facts

• Instructors will check your sources to see if you have made good decisions about where you found your information

• Knowing how to evaluate will help you make better decisions in other areas of your life, such as:
  finding accurate medical information, voting on issues during election time, presenting reliable information to your coworkers in a meeting...etc.