To make good decisions we need to start by identifying good information. With more and more information available, we need to ensure we are using reliable or credible information - not just the first information that comes up in a Google search. In an age of fake news and powerful algorithms, we need to scrutinise information and its sources so that our decisions are based on reliable reasoning and evidence.

For university work, the requirement for selecting appropriate scholarly resources and using evidence based methods is imperative to your success. This module will assist you to critically assess different information sources to locate reliable information. To start, consider the following questions:

Further resources

You can find further information on identifying reliable sources on the following sites:

Monash University Library guides provide details of reliable scholarly information, journals, databases and grey literature

Evaluating web pages provides a Quick study guide

Scholarly sources checklist provides a Quick study guide

Primary sources for humanities provides information on sources for humanities subjects

Quick guide to peer review provides a short tutorial on the peer review process

You can also watch this video: What is a journal article?


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Reasoning Analysing Evaluating Reflecting