Research and Source Evaluation
Building a Credible Evidence Base
Effective inquiry depends on source literacy. Learn to classify sources as primary (original data, eyewitness accounts, raw documents, experiments you run) versus secondary (summaries, textbooks, review articles) versus tertiary (encyclopedias, indexes). Primary sources are not automatically better; they still need scrutiny. Evaluate every source on authority (who wrote it, what credentials), accuracy (can claims be verified elsewhere?), currency (is the date appropriate for the topic?), objectivity (what bias or funding might shape it?), coverage (does it address your specific question?), and purpose (inform, persuade, sell?).
Concepts to Know
- Peer review as a quality filter, and its limits.
- Correlation vs. causation in reported findings.
- Sample and sponsorship bias; think tanks, advocacy groups, and commercial sites.
- Citation and attribution: paraphrasing still requires credit.
- Triangulation: confirming a claim across independent sources.
Traps in Questions
- Treating a popular website or a single study as definitive.
- Ignoring publication dates on fast-changing topics.
- Confusing a secondary summary with the original study.
- Accepting statistics without checking sample size or who funded the work.
- Plagiarism through close paraphrase without citation.
Worked Example / Rule of Thumb
Rule of thumb: apply the lateral reading habit - leave the source and check what independent outlets say about the author and claim. Example: a blog cites "a study" showing a supplement boosts focus. You locate the original paper, find it had 12 participants, no control group, and was funded by the manufacturer. You downgrade its weight and seek peer-reviewed replications before using it.