Is It Legit?

Step 1. DATABASES, DATABASES, DATABASES - If you are a student, or a resident of California... then libraries near you pay good money to maintain subscriptions to collections of credible material. Ebsco, ProQuest, InfoTrac and LexisNexis are especially popular databases. Think of these as Google with a (quality) filter. The search function isn't usually as intuitive, so you'll need to devote more time to searching than you would with Google, but play around with phrases and keywords, and you should find what you're looking for.

Step 2. LOOK FOR "PEER-REVIEWED" ARTICLES - A peer-reviewed article is one that was examined by many expert eyes before it was given the go-ahead to see the light of day. Within those databases from Step 1, you can almost always click a little box that says "peer-reviewed". Doing that will insure that the computer spits back only the finest, most credible material.

Step 3. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRIMARY SOURCE AND A SECONDARY ONE - Primary material, as its name suggests, is the first-hand or first-rate material you should *primarily* refer to for your research. In fact, some teachers don't allow students to include secondary sources in a bibliography at all. Secondary sources are just what they sound like: second-hand, and that sometimes means second-rate.

PRIMARY SOURCES are original documents, like journals, surveys, eyewitness reports, works of literature, and interviews. Personal experience is another high-quality, oft-overlooked source of primary material.

SECONDARY SOURCES, like personal and business websites, encyclopedias and any source that is the result of the "telephone game" (in other words, the info has been passed from person to person), should be used with care. These are generally responses to or analyses of original documents--for instance, a reporter's description of a survey or a critic's analysis of a poem. You needn't avoid secondary sources altogether as they can help you to deepen your research; just be aware when you're using them.

Step 4. WHAT'S IN A NAME? - You already know the difference between .edu, .gov., and .com. You also might have an idea that .orgs have a slightly better reputation than their .com counterparts. But why is that? Truth be told, .orgs are not across-the-board better than .coms, but they ARE often affiliated with non-profit organizations whose job it is to research a particular topic in detail. For that reason, they can be rich sources of information. They are more reputable than .coms in that they are not commercial enterprises, per se, but you've got to be careful with them too. Often, non-profit organizations have a very specific agenda, which means that they can tend to be biased. That reminds me...

5. WATCH OUT FOR BIAS - Sometimes it's easy to detect bias: Britney Spears' fan page, for instance, has a vested interest in promoting all things Britney. In other cases, websites can masquerade as impartial or authoritative sources when in fact they have a specific bias or agenda. Be a careful and critical reader, and don't let yourself get duped.

Step 6. KNOW THE AUTHOR - Take an extra few seconds to Google the author of your source. Knowing about her publication record, her affiliation with organizations, and educational credentials will help you determine what her biases are and whether she's a respected expert in her field.