Finding Credible Sources
0 Not all information your find is true
0 Steps for Examining Sources:
1- The author’s credentials: personal experiences or
academic qualifications.
2- associations or affiliations: the author or publisher.
3- any noticeable bias from the source: Finding unbiased
sources is nearly impossible, question the information
4-Does the author cite any sources? Make sure the sources
stand up to scrutiny
5- Date of source: Check the dates on any source
Finding Credible Sources
6-Incomplete or abridged: missing information or
out of context
7- Reviews or Endorsement: positive reviews or
endorsements
8- Reputable source: If it is reputable, then using this
source is safe.
9- Loaded or vague terms: avoid sources that use
terms like “many people believe”
10- Ulterior motive or agenda
Evaluating for Areas of Bias
0 All sources will be biased in some way
0 Each person has a perspective that influences
the way they present their information
0 Just because something is biased does not
mean it’s not useful
Steps for Evaluating Bias
0 Primary or Secondary sources
0 Author admits to the bias
0 Author might admit to their bias
0 As long at it is recognized, the source is still
useful
0 Bias help support paper
0 Some biases can be beneficial to research
0 Source purposefully misleading
0 Avoid sources that are vague, misleading, or
incomplete
Other Things to Consider
0 Consider the type of source that will be most
useful
0 Might be a wide range of books or journals on
your topic
0 Think about the appropriateness of a particular
source
0 Too informal or too formal  inappropriate
sources
0 Ask for help!
Using the Library
0 Best place to start a Research paper
0 Librarian’s and assistants:
0 Librarians help in finding the sources for the
students
0 Types of sources available:
0 Internet research
0 Books, periodicals, journals
0 Large quantities of quality unbiased sources
Using the Library
0 Come up with some key words or phrases and
write down the name of book and location in the
library
0 Use synonyms for key words too
0 Pick up the key topics that suits for a research paper
0 For long research paper : Encyclopedias , and
various reference books are used
0 Find for the narrower results that suits specific
topic
Periodicals
0 News papers, magazines, and journals are
examples for periodicals.
0 These help to find out the topic very quickly and
more specifically
0 Periodicals are replaced with online databases
because they are updated and can search larger
quantity of information
Using Online Library
Databases.
0 Online library databases are the best sources of
articles.
0 It`s similar to searching the internet for information.
0 Find excerpts from books and other sources on these
databases.
0 Academic databases are different from generic search
engines.
How to select and search
online databases.
0 The library has information about how to access the
online databases .
0 If you don`t find this information, ask a librarian for
information about the online databases.
0 In most cases, you will find the list of databases in a
computer in the library.
How to select and search
online databases.
0 To make the best use of these databases there are
steps during your search:
0 Find databases pertaining specifically to your topic, if
possible.
0 Set up the search parameters within the database to be as
narrow as possible.
0 Slowly expand your search to get additional results.
0 Move to the next database or a more general database in
needed.
Find databases pertaining specifically
to your topic, if possible.
0 Check the brief overview.
0 Ask a librarian.
0 Ask your professor for recommendations.
Set up the search parameters
within the database to be as
narrow as possible.
0 To get the most pertinent information
0 Determine which options are available.
0 Include articles within a specific date range.
Slowly expand your search to get
additional results.
0 Your specific search will return few results.
0 These results will be easier to sift through and will be
current and applicable.
0 If you don`t enough sources, start to expand you’re the
types of journals.
Move to the next database or a more
general database in needed.
0 If you have a thoroughly searched one database.
0 You can move to another to find more or better
results.
0 Different databases can present different jornals and
archives.
Using the Internet
0Types of extensions for websites:
0 1. com: for commercial business or group.
0 2. net: means network and its use is for
information technology.
0 3. org: organization, used for personal
websites and nonprofits organization.
0 4. edu: for educational.
0 5. gov: for government.
Why Wikipedia is not safe
source?
0 Anonymous online community of users
runs Wikipedia
0 Wikipedia is often criticized for
containing bias
0 Having spoof articles
0 Lacking citations
Wikipedia
DO:
0 Check images, graphs and others figures, they can be
useful
0 Check to see if the article has been flagged for any issues
0 Examine the sources listed at the bottom of the article
DON’T:
0 Treat Wikipedia as scholarly source
0 Quote or paraphrase Wikipedia in a paper
0 Accept everything written on Wikipedia as true
Using Blog Resource
Internet specific rules to keep in mind while evaluating
potential online sources
0 1.Check the authorship of online information.
0 2. Look for the date the website was last updated.
0 Try to verify any credentials an author claims to have.
0 Check for citations when they seem necessary.