Evaluating Resources

Evaluating resources--judging whether your sources are credible and relevant to your research--is one of the most important research skills you'll learn.  You need to use high-quality, reliable resources to give your own analysis more authority and credibility.

Most of the library's resources, such as Library Search, ProQuest Articles, and US Newsstream, will lead you to authoritative sources, but you still need to be able to evaluate the information for bias and balance. The information and videos on this page will help you do that.

• How Information is Created: View the information cycle
• Types of Sources: Learn about popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed sources
• SIFT Method: Use four "moves" to determine the validity and reliability of claims and sources on the web
• CRAAP Test: Evaluate your source by working through a series of questions