 Evaluating the credibility of a resource has many facets, and these facets change depending upon your discipline and what you're seeking to learn. With that in mind, I will be taking a general health disciplinary approach and describing credibility and different types of information. Most likely you have been told not to trust.com websites or only use resources that are current. There is some validity to these statements, but today I'm going to break down why those statements are not hard and fast rules. Let's start talking about these in relation to the Crap Model, which can be helpful, but are more like guidelines than rules, and can be used for most types of resources. When you are unsure of a resource, these are some questions you can ask yourself to decide if the resource is something you want to use for your work. First is currency. If you are writing about a current problem or wanting a current solution, it makes sense to have work published recently. But remember that it can take several years for work to be done and published, so you may need to be a little flexible or lenient of your publication dates. Second is relevance. Who is the resource meant for? Health professionals or consumers? Also, does this resource really cover your topic? Or does it just mention it in passing? If it is in passing, consider another source. Third, authority. Who is the author and does it make sense for that person to be studying this topic, meaning do they have a background, degrees, experience, etc., that lend their expertise? Fourth is accuracy. Where does the information come from? And even if it is a .com website, that could very possibly be a scholarly publisher. So pay attention to the content and what you are actually looking at and look for evidence. And finally, the purpose. Why does this source exist? To sell you an idea or product? Or for education or scientific purposes? Be wary of bias. Let's move on to something more specific. Scholarly versus peer-reviewed resources. It's possible that you have been asked to find a scholarly or peer-reviewed resource on your topic, but what are those and how do you identify the two types? Scholarly or peer-reviewed resources are often journal articles or books. A scholarly resource is written by an expert and is reviewed by an editor or editing panel before it is published. A peer-reviewed resource is the next step as it is an extra-review process. This leads to us trusting the resource and its conclusions more because other experts in the field have reviewed it and agreed with it. So all peer-reviewed resources are scholarly but not all scholarly resources are peer-reviewed. Common characteristics of a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal article is a DOI number which stands for Digital Object Identification Number. It's basically like a social security number for scholarly resources. Author affiliations and degrees noted, of course a reference list, and a formal format of abstract, introduction, methodology, etc. If you want to be super sure that a journal is indeed peer-reviewed, you have to check the journal's website to see if they are peer-reviewed or refereed. You can often find this information on the front page in the about the journal or even in the information for the author. These characteristics speak to credibility overall, but what about relevance to your topic? I have created a tool for evaluating and reading journal articles quickly. Evaluating not only for credibility but also relevance to your topic, so be sure to check it out.