Before you trust an information source, it is important that you use your critical thinking skills to evaluate it! To do this, you might use an evaluation criterion, such as SIFT, RADAR, OR ACT UP, as are described below.
Main take away: No matter what type of information you are looking at or where you have found the information, it is always critical for you to stop and think about the source before trusting it or using it in your own work!
SIFT is an evaluation criteria that was created by Mike Caufield at Washington State University, primarily created to evaluate web sources. Use the SIFT criteria to build your digital literacy skills.
SIFT means:
Butler, Walter, Aloha Sargent, and Kelsey Smith. "The SIFT Method." Introduction to College Research, PressBooks, 2021. https://pressbooks.pub/introtocollegeresearch/chapter/the-sift-method/
RADAR is evaluation criteria that was originally created by Jane Mandalios in 2013. The RADAR framework challenges users to look at a source and evaluate it for:
Mandalios, Jane. "RADAR: An Approach for Helping Students Evaluate Internet Sources. Journal of Information Science, vol. 39, no. 4, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551513478889
The ACT UP criteria is an evaluation criteria that was created by Dawn Stahura, at Salem State University in 2017. This evaluation criteria challenges users to evaluate a source with special consideration to its:
Stahura, D. ACT UP: Evaluation Method. Salem State University, 2017, https://libguides.salemstate.edu/actup.