Search Terms
SIFT stands for Stop. Investigate the source. Find better or other sources. Trace back to the original source to see quotes in their original context. Developed by Mike Caulfield for investigating misinformation on the web, it can be a useful tool for evaluating any source, including scholarly conversation and literature.
Checklist methods like the only below were designed for deciding which library resources to use for a paper. A common checklist is to ask yourself some of the following questions:
This test was developed by librarian Sarah Blakeslee and her team at California State University, Chico.
While the checklist method may work for evaluating a very small number of library search results, it falls short of evaluating hundreds of articles, social media posts, books and articles. Read more about the problem of checklist methods and how you can use lateral investigation to check and evaluate your sources.
A scholarly article appears in a publication, such as a journal, which is made up of articles on a narrow topic and which document and discuss the results of original research. Publishing in a scholarly journal is a method researchers use to communicate their research and share with other scholars in their field of study.
A popular article appears in a magazine or newspaper that you may buy at the supermarket. The content in these publications often covers current events or summarizes research done by others. The content in these publications is often brief, written in simple language, and may include pictures and advertisements. Authors are not always named, and sources are not always identified.
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