Skip to Main Content
Accessibility Information

Be a Research Skeptic

A Crash Course in Source Evaluation

Stop & Reflect


Unlike the other steps in the SIFT method, you'll want to Stop and reflect on every source. This step is a reminder to critically consider the information we encounter. It's easy to forget to evaluate our sources when we aren't researching, but source evaluation is important in many contexts.

What is your purpose?

How we evaluate information changes based on what we want to do with it. Are you scrolling through social media? Curious how to use a pronged weed puller? Doing research for an academic assignment? These projects all have very different information needs so our evaluation will be different. When we stop and reflect, we can take a moment to determine what kind of context we're bringing to the evaluation process.

How does this information make you feel?

Do you have an emotional or visceral reaction to the information you're reading? It's important to note when this happens. Take a breath to notice if you're more or less likely to agree with this source based on how it confirms or challenges your current beliefs. Sometimes, sources are written in a way to evoke an emotional reaction. This isn't always done to sway you, but it is a tactic people use when writing click-bait articles or otherwise want to sway you.

Consider this source

Consider the article title "Millennials make Amtrak nix overly cozy dining cars on Penn Station trains" by the New York Post. You can use the link below to visit the article if you like. Briefly review this headline and take a few notes about:

  • Your first impression of the source
  • How the headline makes you feel
  • Do you think others with different life experiences would react in a different way?

When you're ready, expand the panel below to see my thoughts.

There are details about this source that might raise your suspicions about the suitability of this source from a quick glance. For me, these include:

  • There are a lot of ads on this page. Ads aren't always a bad thing, but there are many on this page and it's not always clear which are ads for other New York Post stories, and which are external.
  • The other headlines linked around the page show political bias and use leading, emotional language.
  • You, like me, may have prior experience with New York Post.

But I've chosen this source really for the headline. I'm a millennial. I have many years of experience reading headlines about how my generation is killing the cereal industry, or the diamond industry, or not living up to someone else's' expectations in some way. I have am immediate, emotional reaction to this headline. I feel dismissive of it based on the experiences I've had before.

Someone from a different generation might have a completely different view on this headline. We're going to start reading the article from completely different mindsets. If I reflect for a moment on how my experiences affect my reaction, I am in a better position to be open to what a source has to say. That doesn't mean I'll change my mind.

For a more balanced take on the same Amtrak change, see the Washington Post article This link opens in a new window the New York Post article cites.