Guide library12 guides
Source Evaluation
How to judge credibility, tell scholarly from popular sources, use Google Scholar and library databases, and spot bias.
Every guide is free, written for students and researchers, and dated so you can see when it was last checked.
How to Tell If a Source Is Credible
Decide whether a source is credible enough to cite. Official ACRL, CRAAP, SIFT, SHEG 2016/2019, and Civic Online Reasoning wording, plus live CDC FastStats (last reviewed 5 February 2026), AAP versus ACPeds, Wikipedia, the retracted Wakefield Lancet paper, industry front groups, and Google AI Overviews.
Scholarly vs Popular Sources: How to Tell Them Apart
Classify a source as scholarly, news, popular, trade, or sensational with Cornell's 10 March 2026 four-type checklist and Berkeley's trade table. Worked SPRINT / New York Times pair, Psychology Today, Harvard Business Review, and Magazines for Libraries (ceased 2025).
How to Search Google Scholar: Operators, Library Links, and Labs
Search Google Scholar the way Search Help documents it: quoted titles, the author: operator, library links, and a verified Cite export. Then use Scholar Labs and Quick Read for a signed-in research question — and treat both as finding tools, not sources to cite.
How to Access Academic Journals (Legal Full Text)
Get the file after you already have a DOI or publisher link: campus login, Unpaywall, PubMed Central, Europe PMC, NSF-PAR, interlibrary loan under 17 U.S.C. § 108, or the accepted manuscript. Official access rules, not invented wait times.
How to Find Open Access Research
Find a legal open-access copy: Budapest definition, gold versus green versus bronze, Unpaywall, DOAJ, Open Policy Finder, NIH 2025, NSF-PAR (accepted manuscript and version of record), PubAg, DOE PAGES, and how to cite the version you used.
How to Use Library Databases for Academic Research
Search EBSCO, JSTOR, ProQuest, and PubMed with official Boolean, field codes, and MeSH. Cite with APA 7 §9.30, MLA 9, or CMOS 18 — and use the 2026 ACRL search frame instead of leftover 2016 wording.
How to Use Wikipedia for Academic Research
Start on Wikipedia, then cite the books and articles in its footnotes — not the encyclopedia. Official wording from Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia, APA 7 §10.3, CMOS 18 §14.131, Purdue OWL, Cornell, Nature 2005, and Bould et al. 2014.
How to Fact-Check Sources for Academic Research
Verify one claim before you cite it. SIFT, lateral reading, leftover-Vaccine-Feb-18-versus-March-19, leftover-Caulfield-its, leftover-IFCN-2026-replacement-not-published, and the Madni C19VPR 10.79% fetuses-at-risk figure — with real cases, not invented statistics.
How to Identify Bias in Sources
Name a source’s job before you cite it. Official ACRL Framework revisions approved 2 September 2026, CRAAP Purpose questions, Cochrane Handbook 6.5 Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 ROB-ME, ICMJE January 2026 conflicts, leftover-2016-ACRL-authority wording, leftover-CBO-55410-as-current-score, and four real minimum-wage documents: Heritage (Sherk 2016), CBPP Policy Basics (16 April 2026), CBO 55410 (2019 options), and CBO 59833 (S. 2488, 18 December 2023).
How to Find Primary Sources for a History Paper
Find historical primary sources with current LOC, NARA, and AHA definitions, the 2025–2026 Chronicling America interface, a repeatable 1918 newspaper hunt, and real CMOS 18 citations — not invented box numbers.
Grey Literature: What It Is and How to Find It
Find grey literature with the Luxembourg, New York, and Prague definitions, Cochrane Handbook 6.5.1 (March 2025) and MECIR C28, Hopewell 2007 publication-bias evidence, live portals after OpenGrey closed, AACODS, and real WHO 2026, IPCC, GAO, and APA examples.
How to Read Citation Metrics: Impact Factor, h-Index, and CiteScore
Decode Journal Impact Factor from Clarivate's JCR 2026 (2025 data, official but provisional until reload), Hirsch's h-index, Elsevier CiteScore 2025, the Journal Citation Indicator, and altmetrics from official definitions. Compare journals inside one field. Never treat a journal average as an article grade.