Library Home: Evaluating Sources: Is it Trustworthy?

Sources should be collaborated by other sources.

BEST PRACTICE: Find multiple sources of information.

There is no "truth", only the most current or defensible truth.

We see studies "proving" and "contradicting" other studies all the time in science. Often the studies that are being compared vary in important ways. This makes a direct comparison difficult. Other times the sample size is simply too small to give significant results that can be applied to another population.

FOLLOW THE BREAD-CRUMB TRAIL TO THE AUTHOR

Look at the URL:

Follow the "bread-crumb trail" backwards to identify the hosting pages for a website and get information about the source of content.

https://www.writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/process.html

Content to evaluate: Stages of the Writing Process

https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook

Found in : THE WRITER'S HANDBOOK

https://writing.wisc.edu/

Hosted by: The Writing Center @ The University of Wisconsin - Madison

VIDEO: Credible Sources

VIDEO: From Evaluating Sources Videos Playlist (lib.ncsu.edu) Credits Anne Burke: Project Lead, Storyboards Lisa Becksford: Script, Editing Daria Dorafshar: Graphics and Animation Andreas Orphanides: Editing, Audio Production, Technical Infrastructure Josephine McRobbie: Narration

SCIENTISTS NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE Good reason to get multiple sources of information.

Experimenter gender and replicability in science: analysis should test for experimenter gender effects
According to this paper, there is ample evidence, accumulated over decades of exploration, demonstrating that the gender of an experimenter has significant effects on a range of variables.
Frontiersin.org peer-review is variable. Must judge papers on author by author case.
Not as strict as Nature or Science, but has published many authoritative and accurate articles.
Metaresearchers study how research is done—and why it goes wrong
By Martin Enserink Sep. 21, 2018 , 12:05 PM
A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect
Retraction Watch
When a published paper is discredited, it is usually retracted. This organization tracks retractions as a window into the scientific process.