Once you've discovered sources of information, the critical process of evaluating sources begins. You'll have to start thinking about your own ways of thinking as you encounter new information. Are you interacting with a wide range of perspectives on your topic? How many voices are represented by the sources you have found? Is there anything missing, or have you come across surprising information that requires digging into the search process again?
One strategy that you can use is "lateral reading."
To read more about "lateral reading" and other fact checking strategies and resources, visit Librarian Tim Arnold's "Evaluating Online Information" subject guide: https://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/evaluatingonlineinformation
Below is a source that we aren't sure about. Let's do lateral reading on it and learn about it so we can figure out how much we can trust it!
The tabs in this box represent some of the ways you can evaluate the information you come across as you do research online. You have to decide which information to read and trust, and these pointers can help. It's called the CRAAP test to help make it easy to remember:
C - Currency
R - Relevance/Coverage
A - Authority
A - Accuracy
P - Purpose