1 Evaluating Information

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter you will:

  • Critically examine resources and information
  • Evaluate journals and understand Journal Impact Factors
  • Understand how science is presented and misinterpreted in the media

Why do we evaluate information?

We evaluate information to ensure we are using the best resources. Over 3 million research articles are published each year1. With so much information out there, it is important to critically examine each resource before using it in your work.

We want to find information that is high quality and relevant.

This section will teach you what to look for when you are evaluating resources.

Why is this important?

Though most journal articles contain reliable information, not all articles have the same level of quality. This is why we need to examine every article critically.

Below are three examples of why an article may not be reliable.

 

 

  1. International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers. (2018). STM Report: An overview of scientific and scholarly publishing (5th edition). https://www.stm-assoc.org/2018_10_04_STM_Report_2018.pdf

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Advanced Library Skills for Physics Research Copyright © 2020 by Lauren Stieglitz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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