LibGuides: Bioethics Seminar: Evaluating Sources

Evaluating Sources: Criteria to Consider

Evaluating Information – Applying the CRAAP Test (this is the original CRAAP test from Chico State University)
"What is pseudoscience?", Scientific American
"How to spot fake science", from Biologos.org
Biologos is a Christian organization of scientists.

Scholarly Journal Articles vs. Popular Magazine Articles

Scholarly Journal vs. Popular Magazine Articles Comparison Chart

"Anatomy of a Scholarly Article", from North Carolina State University
Interactive example of the different components of a scholarly article.
Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Evaluating Sources: the Peer Review Process

Getting Started: Suggested Sources

Databases with Peer Reviewed Articles

BioRxiv
"The Pre-Print Server for Biology"
MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health

JSTOR This link opens in a new window Search full text academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in multiple disciplines
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Designed for scholarly research, this database supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study including STEM, social sciences and humanities. It includes resources from journals, periodicals, reports, books and more including peer-reviewed journal articles. (View list of titles)
Science in Context (Gale) This link opens in a new window

"COVID-19 Vaccines", from MedlinePlus, the database of the National Library of Medicine.
"MedlinePlus is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)."

Roman Catholic Sources

Selected Sources: Recommended Articles and Websites

Ms. Sweeney's Select Resources for COVID-19 Research (spreadsheet)

Database Password List

Database Offsite Password List, Oct. 2022

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Using Boolean Operators in a search: AND, OR, NOT, +, --

AND decreases the number of results, since a source MUST CONTAIN ALL SEARCH TERMS, e.g COVID-A19 AND vaccine AND safety

OR increases the number of results, since a source only needs to contain ONE of the SEARCH TERMS entered

NOT decreases the number of results, since it EXCLUDES SPECIFIC search terms

Evaluating General Online Information

General Online Searches-- Red Flags Indicators that a source might be deliberately misleading include:

Appeals to extreme emotional reactions. If you find yourself overly outraged or intensely hoping a story is true, perform a two-source check and see how established, reliable organizations have covered the story.

Sources that don't clearly disclose who made them and what their authority is. A responsible organization will have an about page, a list of editors and other staff, and ways to contact it. Remember, professional news organizations want credit for a job well done. When in doubt, do some research on the source itself.

No attributed sources or reliance on sources that aren't credible. Good sources attribute where they got their information, and they use sources that are knowledgeable and trustworthy. If your story is referencing or linking to sources that aren't Verifiable, Independent, and Accountable (or worse, has no sourcing at all), you may want to use another.

Sketchy domain names or unprofessional production. CBSNews.com is a real news site. CBSNews.com.go is not. If the URL of a site looks a bit off, do a bit more digging to see if the news organization is legitimate -- and if that's their real page. Also, while a high-end website is no guarantee that information is accurate, a poor quality one riddled with bad grammar and amateur-ish design should prompt you to find out more

Reproduced from the University of Washington Library, https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1013901/pages/red-flags-spotting-unreliable-info

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This short video is from the Open University Library