These tutorials from other libraries may be helpful. Just think BYU when they say another place. The principles remain the same!

Selecting and using keywords

Selecting relevant articles

What is a scholarly article?

Peer Review

Evaluating sources

Searching Google effectively

• author is an anthropologist or ethnomusicologist or is associated with one of these fields and the article is published in an anthropology or ethnomusicology journal
• article is based on fieldwork (abstract should indicate this) and what people do and say about culture, society and everyday life.
• article may include anecdotes and will try to show the people's point of view.
• article looks at how people are affected --going along, resisting, how ideas about topic are formed, or how it matters in the life of people.

Here are some other things to consider when evaluating an information source:

Consider your information need when evaluating potential sources.  Are you writing a research paper, or an opinion piece for the school paper? 

What are the characteristics of the information that you are evaluating?  Is it factual or analytical?  Subjective or objective?  Primary, secondary, or tertiary?  The type of information that you need will depend on your project.

If you are using a web site, look for clues in the URL.  Addresses ending with .edu, .gov, or .org are usuallly more reputable than addresses ending with .com or .net.

Be aware that bias can exist in any information source, including books owned by the library.  Human understanding of events changes over time, and attitudes do as well. 

Online Verification Skills - series of four videos by Mike Caulfield

Lateral Reading

Disinfomania article

RADAR Video from Brock University

RADAR Video from UTSC

When evaluating the quality of an information source, the acronymn RADAR can be useful:

Rationale

Authority

Date

Accuracy 

Relevance

Here are some questions to ask yourself for each category:

Rationale - What is the rationale, or purpose, of the resource?  Is it to inform, entertain, etc?  Is the purpose clearly outlined in the foreword or introduction?  Is the work's audience an expert in the field or a layperson?

Authority - Who is the author of the work, and what are his/her credentials?  Who published the work - a scholarly press, a commercial publisher, or is it self-published?  If it is an online resource, can you determine who the author is?

Date - How current is the information?  Is the age of the publication likely to affect the conclusions drawn by the author? 

Accuracy -  Does this work present you with high quality information? Was the information reviewed by editors or subject experts before it was published?  Was it fact-checked?  How do you know? Do the citations and references support the author's claim?

Relevance - Is your topic treated as the main subject, or is it peripheral?  Does the information support or disprove your thesis?  Is the resource useful to your research need?