AAA Shared Instruction Boxes

Check out this short video from Western University on how to read a scholarly article.

Watch this video from UTSA Libraries on what a scholarly article is and how it differs from magazines and other types of writing.

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Long description of "Evaluating Information" for web accessibility

Thanks to IUPUI University Library for allowing reuse of this graphic under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License.

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Thanks to IUPUI University Library for allowing reuse of this graphic under a Creative Commons license.

Long description of "Scholarly vs. Popular" infographic for web accessibility

Check out this video from UO Libraries about distinguishing scholarly vs. popular sources of information.

Check out this short video from UNC Libraries on how to evaluate your sources of information.

Check out this short video from NC State on peer review and its effect on the quality of scholarly journal articles.

Check out this 3-minute video from University Libraries at the University of Louisville to learn about lateral reading of websites as an approach used by fact checkers to evaluating news sources. The key message is to move throughout the Web to assess the website in question. Do not rely solely on the content or links of the website itself ("vertical reading"). 

Citizen Literacy was created by Robert Detmering, Amber Willenborg, and Terri Holtze for University of Louisville Libraries and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Pause to Reflect 

When evaluating sources of information for accuracy and credibility, there are many aspects of the source that you can consider.  One source that might not fit your research question could still be useful to someone else, so it's not helpful to think about "good" or "bad" sources. Most importantly, if a resource is from a trustworthy author or organization and helps you answer your research question, then you have identified a useful source. Please contact your instructor or a librarian if you would like more help!

Evaluating sources is an important step of the research process. The evidence you choose to use for your research should accurately support what you are trying to argue and it should lend credibility to your work. If you cherry pick your sources, or find quotes that "kind of" fit in your paper, that can have the opposite effect.

Check out this video tutorial from Winona State University on the differences between scholarly, trade, & popular articles:

Text description of "SIFT: Evaluate Information in a Digital World" for web accessibility

For more on the SIFT Method, check out this blog post from Mike Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning at Washington State University Vancouver: