Library Research Tutorial: Adapted from Canvas Course

What is SIFT?

Source evaluation can take several forms. Begin by using the SIFT Method:

• Stop
• Investigate the source
• Find trusted coverage
• Trace to the original 

All sources, peer-reviewed or not, do require evaluation prior to use by a researcher. Yes, even scholarly sources should be evaluated using the following criteria (and perhaps more criteria not listed here).

Consider:

• date of publication

  • How recent is the source? Was it written during, before, or after an event occurred? 
    • A 1942 article on WWII will look different from a 2021 article on WWII. Both can be valid for use in different contexts. 

• author

  • Who are they? What are their qualifications? 
    • A biochemistry student, biochemist, and economist all have different qualifications. We consider their writings regarding chemical compounds differently. 

• publisher

  • Like the author, what does this publisher tend to produce? Do they have a good reputation? 
    • Especially with academic articles, beware predatory publishers.

• purpose

  • Why was this article written? 
  • depends on audience

• audience

  • Who is this article for?
    • An author will write differently to children, teenagers, adults, etc.
    • The qualifications and characteristics of an audience influence the style of writing, as well. 

The above questions can help us determine:

• bias

  • Everything has bias. Even the most even-keeled, objective in appearance articles contain bias. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

• veracity

  • How true and trustworthy is the source?