Evaluating the information you find in your research process is essential! Our sources establish our credibility as scholars, establish the facts, and show us the current state of research. This video provides a short overview of what factors impact the credibility of a source. Pay special attention to how the credibility of the source depends on what we are researching.
To determine whether a source is high quality and credible, you will need to consider the source's relevance to your research question, the date the information was published, the author's level of expertise, and their purpose or point of view.
Don’t just take anything that mentions the words from your research question in the title or abstract of the source. You want to determine the topic and conclusions or argument of the source and think closely about if this source answers some or all of your research question.
Let's say that we are researching if and how people can predict when they might get a migraine. Our first step is to think carefully about what we want to know.