TESP 069 Christian Social Ethics (Peterson-Iyer): Finding Credible Sources

Different research assignments have different requirements for your research sources.  You might be asked to find “scholarly sources,” “peer-reviewed sources,” or “popular sources.”

No matter what kind of source you’re asked to find, you will need to make sure it’s a credible source. 

Let’s investigate the concept of “credible source” more deeply.

A credible source:

• Is written by a knowledgeable, identifiable author(s)
• Cites its sources of information
• Is current for your topic; and
• Is transparent in its purpose.  

Who decides what is credible?  

You do.  While your instructor has the ultimate authority to decide what sources they will or will not accept as credible, you will need to do the work to evaluate sources and decide which ones you think fit the credible source requirements.

There are tools that you can use to help you do this evaluation work.  Your instructor might ask you to use a specific evaluation test, or they might not.  If you don’t have a specific evaluation method you are being asked to use, you can always use the following questions to make sure your source is credible by meeting the credibility criteria. 

Four questions based on the elements of a credible source:

1. Can you tell who the author is? Are they an expert in this topic?
2. Do they show evidence for their claims and cite their sources?
3. Is your source relevant and recent enough for your topic?
4. Every source has a viewpoint. Can you identify this source’s perspective and any bias? 

For example, you can find information about the author’s expertise on a subject by googling their name to see if they are affiliated with a college or government agency.  If you can’t find any information about the author, you can’t determine whether or not they have any expertise.

You can find out if an article is up to date by looking at its publication date.

Or you can look at the organization which publishes a source, do they have any financial gain or bias? 
Remember, whether you use google or the library databases to find sources, you will need to do this evaluation work to make sure that your resource is credible or scholarly.  Just as you are required to cite every source you use, you will need to make sure that every source you use is evaluated to meet the requirements (such as “credible” or “academic”) that your instructor specifies for a particular topic. Even if your assignment doesn’t specify a particular requirement for your sources, you should get into the habit of evaluating everything you use or read, whether online or in print.  Understanding the reliability and context of a sources gives you information you need to build strong arguments, find accurate and trustworthy materials, and make informed conclusions.