USU Concurrent Enrollment: Evaluate Info

The following questions and clues can help determine whether or not to trust a website, and whether or not you can consider it an authoritative and credible source:

Where is the website coming from or who is the author? Look for clues like…

• an “About” or “More about the Author” link
• the domain name (.edu, .com, .mil, .gov, .org)

Does the website present a certain bias or specific opinion? Look for clues like…

• links or references to other websites or sources that might be associated with specific biases
• the language being used

Can you tell when it was published? Look for clues like…

• phrases that include the words “updated” or “published”
• specific dates

Who is the target audience for the website? Look for clues like…

• references to specific organizations or groups of people
• advertisements that might be targeting specific groups

When you are searching the library databases, you will find both articles that are scholarly and articles that are not.  The sources in library databases are credible, but your instructor may require that you choose the most credible academic sources, those that are scholarly. The easiest way to ensure your sources are scholarly is to select the "Peer Reviewed" box.

Look on the FAQ tab of this guide for more useful information on evaluating sources and more about peer review.

Professors often talk about using "scholarly" articles and avoiding "popular" sources. However, there are many sources that fall somewhere in the middle -- sources that reside between scholarly and popular. And all these sources can be helpful in their own ways. Popular sources can provide background information and context, while more scholarly information can provide hard evidence and compelling research. The following table describes popular and scholarly articles and the spaces in between. It might be more helpful to think of this as a spectrum rather than two diametrically opposed categories into which all sources must fit.