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INST 1502: Pride and Prejudice: Appalachian Identity

Resources and information relevant to the topics discussed in INST 1502.

How do you determine the credibility of a source

Credibility is Contextual

SIFT method for evaluating resources

SIFT is a series of actions you can take to determine the validity and reliability of claims and sources on the web.

The SIFT method, or strategy, is quick and simple and can be applied to various kinds of online content: news articles, scholarly articles, social media posts, videos, images, etc.

Each letter in SIFT corresponds to one of the Four Moves:

A graphic explaining the SIFT Method: The S stands for STOP, the I stands for Investigate the Source, the F stands for find other coverage and the T stands for trace claim quotes and media back to their original context.

Stop

Investigate the source

Find better coverage

Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context

 

Find more details on the Four Moves from Mike Caulfield's SIFT (Four Moves), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Evaluating Sources

Predatory Journals - Fake Science

There Are Now 8,000 Fake Science ‘Journals’ Worldwide, Researchers Say

  • Falsely claiming to provide peer review and meaningful editorial oversight of submissions
  • Lying about affiliations with prestigious scholarly/scientific organizations
  • Claiming affiliation with a non-existent organization
  • Naming reputable scholars to editorial boards without their permission (and refusing to remove them)
  • Falsely claiming to have a high Journal Impact Factor
  • Hiding information about APCs until after the author has completed submission
  • Falsely claiming to be included in prestigious indexes