Research Guides: BIOLOGY 180: How to Evaluate Sources

News Sources: Real or Fake?

"IFLA has made this infographic with eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org’s 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download, print, translate, and share – at home, at your library, in your local community, and on social media networks."https://repository.ifla.org/items/c5dbfa34-7d00-47ac-8057-0183a5056438

FactCheck.org
Funded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Univ. of Pennsylvania the site idenifies itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." Articles take on current political rumors and assertions and examine the facts.
News Literacy Project
"founded in 2008, is a nonpartisan nonprofit building a national movement to ensure that all students are skilled in news literacy before high school graduation, giving them the knowledge and ability to participate in civic society as well-informed, critical thinkers. NLP is the country’s leading provider of news literacy education and works with educators in all 50 states."

Evaluating Journal Sources

Ulrich's Periodicals Directory This link opens in a new window
Use this to determine if a journal is refereed & where it is indexed.

Evaluating Media Bias

By ad fontes media. For the most recent printable and/or interactive version go to: https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/.

Evaluating Information Sources

When evaluating the veracity of sources (articles, websites, etc.) consider the following criteria:

1. Are the sources authoritative and relevant? Is it possible to determine:

Currency of information
Sources cited in the work / Sources citing the work
Person(s) participating in creating the source
If there are balance viewpoints
Peer Reviewed / Refereed / Scholarly
To what sites do the links/URLS in the sources go

2. Are the sources from:

Trade publications (e.g. Time/Warner )
University presses (e.g. Duke University Press)
Professional associations (American Chemical Society, National Education Association )
Primary, secondary, tertiary sources
Websites (for example: .com, .org., .edu, .gov)

For more information about evaluating sources, review the recommended sites below: