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Getting Started With Your Paper / Project

Tips from UMSL's Reference Librarians on researching papers and projects.

Why and how do I evaluate sources?

One of the benefits of using the library for research is that its scholarly resources (academic books, journal articles, etc.) have been written and reviewed by experts.  Information you collect from library resources is more likely to be factual and detailed enough for academic research compared to sources available on the general web.

There are several approaches you can take to evaluating a source yourself. One option is looking at the questions posed by the CRAAP acronym:

  • Is it Current?
  • Is it Relevant?
  • Is it Authoritative?
  • Is it Accurate?
  • Does it meet my Purpose?

Another approach - extremely useful for sources you find on the general web - is SIFT, which involves four strategies:

  • STOP. Before reading the source, look at where it's coming from/who's written it. Do you already trust this source? If you don't know much about it, research that before reading the content.
  • INVESTIGATE the source. LEAVE the source and read up on its reputation elsewhere. Wikipedia can be an excellent place for finding background information on sources like online news outlets.
  • FIND trusted coverage. Look for coverage of the claim from other sources you already trust.
  • TRACE the claim. Find the person/source that originally made the claim for proper context.

 

For more details about evaluating web sources with SIFT, we recommend the below videos from Mike Caulfield: