This LibGuide is designed to be a resource for students enrolled in EX340, Research Methods in Sport & Exercise. Throughout the class, you will have different sessions with the librarians on evaluating sources, utilizing library resources, and how to properly cite your sources. You can use this guide to review what you have learned during your library sessions.
There are many surface level red flags you might be familiar with when it comes to evaluating websites. Are there a lot of ads? Does the page cite sources? While these are good questions to ask, people/organizations are becoming better at deceiving internet users by ensuring they are not raising any of our red flags. Luckily, there is another way to combat this - lateral reading.
Lateral reading is digging deeper into the source before you ever review the source.
Step 1: Identify the source you might want to use.
Step 2: Open a new tab and search for the name of the source you want to use.
Step 3: What does Wikipedia say about your source? Are there individuals connected to your source? Who is backing your source?
Step 4: Open another tab and search the organization again. What are other sites saying? *If you're looking into a news story, this would be a good time to use a fact checking tool.
Lateral reading teaches you to look outside of the website to see if the source is credible.
Need a resource we don't have?
Through interlibrary loan, the librarians have the ability to request materials from other libraries.
Please submit an interlibrary loan request by using the Interlibrary Loan Form,
or send an e-mail with the resource citation information to torresb@bethanylb.edu.
