All right, so you've found an article, website, etc. and it has information that you want to use as a reference for your paper. The next step is deciding if this is a reliable resource. Does it have good information and can you trust it?
There are several pieces of information you should look for.
First, look at the Author. Do they have any credentials? Do they know what they're talking about? Why did they write this? Was it for their job, do they want to inform? Do they have their own point to push? If somebody works for a cigarette company you probably don't want to get cigarette related health information from them.
Next, when was it written? Is it current? Is it out-of-date? A paper written in 1992 on how to use a computer isn't going to be very useful. Some things may not go out of date; When I was in school we still had to read papers on good library service that were written in the 1920's. For anything to do with a fast-paced field like technology or certain aspects of medicine, five years is a good rule of thumb.
What was the article published in? Is it a good, respectable journal? Is it a newspaper? Is it a blog? Did it have to go through some sort of process to make sure that all the facts were correct? The top articles come from peer-reviewed journals. This means that experts in the field read them over and gave the go-ahead for publication.
Another thing to look at about a publication is their audience. Who was the article written for? People like to read things that conform to their own views. Some publications cater to this and therefore write pieces that are biased in favor of a particular view.
Does the article have any references? Does it cite other works? If they're citing someone else that means they've done their research. Who did they cite?
Look at all of these points before you read and use an article to help you decide if it's trustworthy.
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