Know Your Tier
You find an article published by BBC News
Tier 2
You're researching teen sleep. The article is written by a pediatrician who specializes in adolescent sleep.
Does this increase or decrease the source's credibility?
Increase
An article gives a statistic and links directly to the government report where the number came from.
Strong or weak evidence?
Strong
The article clearly lists the author's name, qualifications, and organization.
Green flag
The first result on Google is usually the most credible source.
False. Google ranking does not equal credibility
You find an article through Google. It has no author, no citations, and several claims you can't verify anywhere else. What tier?
Tier 5
An article about improving grades is written by the CEO of a company that sells tutoring programs.
What should you be cautious about?
A potential conflict of interest or financial motivation.
An article says:
“Research proves that listening to music makes students smarter.”
But it doesn't identify or link to the research.
What's the problem?
The claim isn't supported with traceable evidence.
The article says:
“Experts agree this is the best solution.”
But it never identifies any of those experts.
Red flag
Which is more important when evaluating a source?
A. How professional the website looks
B. How many people shared it
C. Who wrote it and what evidence they provide
D. How high it appears on Google
C
You find an article in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. It includes the researchers' methods, results, limitations, and references.
Tier 1
You're researching climate change. The article says only “By Staff Writer.” There is no biography or information about the writer.
What's the credibility concern?
You can't determine the author's qualifications or expertise.
An article contains 12 links, which looks impressive.
You click them and discover almost all of the links lead to blogs repeating the same claim.
Does having lots of links make the evidence strong? Why or why not?
No. The quality and where the evidence comes from matter more than the number of links.
An article explains evidence supporting its argument and acknowledges research that challenges its position.
Green flag
You find the same statistic on five different websites.
Does that automatically mean the statistic is trustworthy?
No. All five websites could be repeating information from the same unreliable source. You should trace the statistic back to its original source.
You find an article through Google. The author has relevant qualifications, the article was published recently, and it links directly to reliable evidence.
Tier 3
An article about teen mental health is written by Dr. James Williams, PhD. You investigate and discover his doctorate is in medieval history.
What's the problem?
His expertise isn't relevant to the subject.
A headline says:
“SOCIAL MEDIA CAUSES TEEN ANXIETY.”
But the study it cites only found that teens who used more social media also reported higher levels of anxiety.
What's the problem?
The article is treating correlation as causation.
An article about the benefits of tutoring links to legitimate studies.
You discover the website is owned by a company selling tutoring services.
Red flag
You're researching whether phones should be banned in schools.
You find an article that strongly disagrees with your opinion, but it was written by a qualified author and uses strong, verifiable evidence.
Should you reject it because it disagrees with you?
No. A source doesn't become less credible just because it challenges your position.
You find an article through Google about how social media affects teenagers.
The article:
What tier would you place this source in, and what is the MOST important factor in your decision?
Tier 4
Why: It has several strong credibility signals, but the publisher has a direct financial interest in convincing readers that social media is a problem. Students should recognize the conflict of interest and verify the information using an independent source.
Two articles discuss social media and mental health.
Article A: Written by a psychologist but provides no citations.
Article B: Written by an experienced science journalist who interviews four psychologists and links directly to the research discussed.
Which author automatically makes their article more credible?
Either one!
Credentials matter, but you need to evaluate the entire source. A qualified author can still make unsupported claims, while a journalist may produce a strongly researched article.
An article cites a real peer-reviewed scientific study.
You open the original study and discover that the researchers' actual conclusion is much more cautious than what the article claims.
The article technically cited a reliable source.
What's the credibility problem?
The article is misrepresenting its evidence. Having a credible citation doesn't help if the author inaccurately describes what that source found.
A website:
NEITHER
You find an article through Google that seems perfect for your research topic. It was published recently and has an author's name, but you're still unsure whether you should use it.
Name THREE things you should check before deciding whether the source is credible.