Chemistry

Here's a source that looks reliable and credible

At first glance, this source looks great! The website is visually appealing with no ads. The organization's name, "American College of Pediatrics," sounds official. The article has an abstract, similar to academic articles.

Stop! Let's investigate the source...

Looking up "American College of Pediatrics" in Google or Wikipedia will quickly show that this organization is a socially conservative advocacy group.

In addition, the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the American College of Pediatrics as a hate group, and the director of the US National Institutes of Health has accused the group of misusing scholarly medical research to further a political agenda. 

You can quickly weed out many problematic sources by checking the Wikipedia for the name of the website, organization, or company.

This tweet claims Jim Carrey was trained by the CIA to endure the make-up process during filming of The Grinch.

We could investigate the source of this information, the @UberFacts Twitter account, or we could look for additional, better coverage of this topic to learn more. 

Let's find better coverage by checking fact-checking website, Snopes.com...

Snopes rates this claim as true!

Snopes is a well-established and trusted fact-checking website that relies on investigative journalism to debunk hoaxes and false news. They provide a detailed write up of the claim and any supporting or opposing information. Snopes articles also include a list of sources consulted while investigating the claim. In this case, the Snopes article provides links to interviews with both Jim Carrey and the film's producer, both of whom discuss the CIA agent who provided training to Carrey.

Fact-checking websites don't just tell you if something is true or not. They also provide additional context and often link to the most original version of the information possible.

This article discusses a study related to the impact of loneliness on mortality rates, but does not link to the original source of the information.

Articles that discuss scholarly research can give you perspective on your topic and provide commentary and analysis of the scholarly work. However, it can also be playing a game of telephone; important information or context gets lost along the way.

Sometimes finding the original context of a piece of information is as simple as following a link. Other times you have to find clues and investigate. This article tells us "the study was led by Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad," and we know the study was about loneliness, social isolation, and early death.

Let's use the clues in the text to find the original source...

Using Google Scholar, we can find the original study - "Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review."

Google Scholar is a useful tool for finding scholarly research when you have only a small amount of information, like the author's name or a date of publication.

Once you find the right article, you can use Google Scholar or a library database to locate and read a copy of the original study, which may have been misrepresented or misquoted.

Results and findings of scholarly research are often taken out of context or over simplified. Always look for the original study.

References