English 101/104: College Writing/College Writing Extended

To critically evaluate sources, apply criteria that examines the authority, accuracy, currency, relevance and objectivity of the source. To evaluate sources, including authority:

• Watch the video: Evaluating Sources.
• Complete the Tutorial: Evaluating Digital Sources Using Lateral Reading. 
• Watch the video: Introduction to Fact Checking in the Tutorial about Fact Checking.
• Review the list of Fact-Checking Resources (websites) to verify truthful information.

To determine the credibility of an authoritative source, try these strategies to find information about the author's credentials:

• Google an author's name, use lateral reading and verify information on authoritative, fact-checking websites.
• Search for biographical information in Rutgers Biography (Electronic Reference Sources) Databases Libguide. 
• To evaluate the credibility of a researcher, look up the researcher's profile in Scopus or Web of Science Database.

Some fact checking resources (websites) to verify truthful information include:

PolitiFact ("Fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact.")

Factcheck.org ("A nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.")

Snopes ("When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes’ fact-checking and original investigative reporting lights the way to evidence-based and contextualized analysis.")

SciCheck ("FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.")

Factchecker (Washington Post) ("The purpose of this website, and an accompanying column in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post, is to “truth squad” the statements of political figures regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local.")

Duke Reporters' Lab: Fact Checking ("Includes a database of global fact-checking sites, which can be viewed as a map or as a list; also includes how they identify fact-checkers.")

Media Bias/Fact Check ("Founded in 2015, Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an independent website that has promoted awareness of media bias and misinformation by rating the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources, large and small.")

See below for typical features of a scholarly article.  Most databases and QuickSearch, to the left of your search results, allow you to limit your results to peer-reviewed articles. However, just because your article is published in a scholarly journal doesn't mean that it is scholarly. Scholarly journals include items that are NOT scholarly, for example, editorials and book reviews. If you are unsure about using the information you've found, be sure to check with a librarian at Ask a Librarian or your professor.

While it is possible to find scholarly articles on the Internet using a search engine such as Google, often you will be asked to pay for those articles.  Rutgers subscribes to many Indexes and Databases which often have filters located to the left of the search results to limit the results to scholarly sources.

If you log into Google Scholar from our databases at Indexes and Databases on the libraries website, you will see a "Get it @ R" link next to every resource available from Rutgers University Libraries. This way, most of the articles you access will be freely available to you as a Rutgers student.

Scholarly books can be great sources for Project 4. Review the table below to compare the differences between scholarly books and popular non-fiction books. Use QuickSearch to locate and request books and e-books held at any of the Rutgers libraries.