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, and Stanford civic-online-reasoning wording, plus real cases: CDC FastStats, AAP versus ACPeds, Wikipedia, the retracted Wakefield Lancet paper, and industry front groups.
Scholarly vs Popular Sources: How to Tell Them Apart
Classify a source as scholarly, news, popular, trade, or sensational with Cornell's four periodical types and Berkeley's trade category. Worked SPRINT / New York Times pair, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review.
How to Use Google Scholar for Academic Research
Learn how to use Google Scholar to find papers fast: search operators, filters, saved alerts, 'Cited by' tracking, library links for full text, and one-click citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago.
How to Access Academic Journals (Legal Full Text)
Open the article after you already have a citation: library login, Unpaywall, PubMed Central, Europe PMC, interlibrary loan, and the author accepted manuscript. Official access rules, not invented turnaround 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 2026, Plan S after 2024, 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. Then decide whether APA 7 §9.30, MLA 9, or CMOS 18 names the database — with Hallion, Goldman, Stein, and Risto examples.
How to Use Wikipedia for Academic Research
Use Wikipedia to get oriented and harvest footnotes, not as a cited source. Official wording from Wikipedia, APA 7 §10.3, CMOS 18 §§14.130–14.131, Harvard, Nature 2005, and the 2016 WikiJournal Cerebellum paper.
How to Fact-Check Sources for Academic Research
Verify one claim before you cite it. Use Caulfield’s SIFT moves, Wineburg’s lateral reading, the 2023 Verified toolkit, Wardle’s information-disorder terms, and IFCN source rules — with real cases, not invented statistics.
How to Identify Bias in Sources
Name a source’s job before you cite it. Official CRAAP Purpose questions, Cochrane Handbook 6.5 bias and ROB-ME wording, ICMJE conflicts, and three real minimum-wage documents: Heritage (Sherk 2016), CBPP Policy Basics (16 April 2026), and CBO publication 55410.
How to Find Primary Sources for a History Paper
Find historical primary sources with official LOC, NARA, and AHA definitions, current digital collections, a worked 1918 newspaper hunt, and real CMOS 18 citation examples.
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 2025, IPCC, GAO, and APA examples.
How to Read Citation Metrics: Impact Factor, h-Index, and CiteScore
Read Journal Impact Factor from Clarivate's JCR 2026 (2025 data), Hirsch's h-index, Elsevier CiteScore, the Journal Citation Indicator, and altmetrics from official definitions. Compare journals inside one field. Never treat a journal average as an article grade.