Information Literacy Tutorial for the Biological & Biomedical Sciences

At this stage of your research, you’ll need to preread articles you find before studying them in depth. This gives a better indication of whether that article is relevant to your topic than simply looking for your keywords in the title. You can then save articles that look promising and read them in more detail later.

Prereading is meant for speed, so that you can skim sections rather than read the whole article from start to finish while searching and choosing your first set of articles.

Skim these sections:

• Article title
• Abstract
• Author keywords and any controlled vocabulary such as MeSH
• The beginning sentences of the introduction
• The authors’ conclusions, which may be included under a Discussion section.

Research articles are written in very specific and technical language, so you may need to find explanations of terms that are new to you. The best places to find these explanations are your textbook, the Access Science database, or a web search. When searching the web or using Wikipedia, be sure to check several sources and determine whether the information you’re finding is accurate. While you would not cite these sources in a lab report or project that requires peer-reviewed research articles, reading them is often helpful in understanding and applying those research articles you cite.  

This advice is based on Sections 3.3 and 2.3 of Knisely. If you haven’t read these sections already, please do - you will find them invaluable.
Knisely, K. (2021). A student handbook for writing in biology (Sixth ed.). Macmillan Learning. https://qcat.quinnipiac.edu/record=b4729348~S8

CRAAP is an acronym for the general categories of criteria that can be used to evaluate information you find. Developed at the Meriam Library at California State University-Chico, the CRAAP Test is a list of questions to keep in mind as you evaluate your sources.

If you use Internet sites in your research, it is very important that they be critically evaluated. Remember, anyone can put up a web site.

The following should help with this evaluation process.

• Who is the author and what is the author’s background?
  • The author of the site (either individual or corporate) should be identifiable along with any credentials or expertise they may have.  For instance, does the author have an advanced degree (PhD or MD) in the discipline; is the author a published scientist residing at a research institution? 
  • A site that lists content provider names and affiliations is more likely to be reputable than a site where that informtion is hidden or absent.  Look for an email link for the author as well as additional contact information.
     
• What is the domain (.com, .edu, .gov, .org)?
  • The domain name can also give a clue as to the nature of the site.  A Commercial enterprise with a .com site will very likely be different than Organization with .org, Government with .gov, or Education with .edu sites.  
  • Usually scientists and researchers will have websites with .edu, .gov or .org domains.  
  • Commercial sites would be for corporate entities (Pfizer.com) and news sources (cnn.com and newyorktimes.com).  
  • Organizations, societies, and associations have .org domains (American Association for the Advancement of Science - aaas.org). 
  • The United States government agencies, departments, etc. have .gov domains (U.S. Geological Survey - usgs.gov).
  • Higher educational institutions have .edu domains (quinnipiac.edu).    
     
• Is the web site up-to-date?
  • Look for dates or other indications on the page as to when the content was created, last reviewed or updated.  Science and medical information require timely updating.
     
• What is the purpose or motive behind the web site?
  • Try and determine the purpose of the website.  It may be trying to sell products or ideas.  Be aware of bias towards certain points of view.  Content suggesting drugs as a course of treatment for a back injury will seem suspicious next to links to sites selling back pain medication. 
     
• How appropriate is the information?
  • The information on the page should be appropriate and relevant to the question at hand. 
  • Is it written at a suitable educational level? 
  • Who is the intended audience: academic communities, researchers, children, general public, organization supporters, political groups, or competitors? 
     
• How accurate, credible, and reliable is the information?
  • It's important to understand the accuracy of the information along with the credibility of the author.  Popular sites such as Wikipedia can have content added, modified or deleted by anyone.  It shouldn't carry the same weight of significance as information from a scholarly database or peer reviewed publication.