Judge Your Sources

Not all sources are equal

A peer-reviewed journal article, a government statistics report and a viral WhatsApp message can all "say" something about the same topic. They're not equally trustworthy.

Check five things

For any source, ask:

1. Who wrote it? A named expert or organisation, or nobody?
2. Where is it published? A journal, a university, a government, or a random site?
3. When? Is it recent enough for your topic? Statistics from 2012 may not describe today.
4. Why? Is it informing, or selling, campaigning or trying to get clicks?
5. What's the evidence? Does it show data and references, or just opinions?

Read laterally

Fact-checkers don't judge a website by reading it closely. They open new tabs and see what others say about it. This is called lateral reading:

• Search the organisation's or author's name: who are they?
• Search the claim itself: do reliable sources report the same thing?
• Look for the original source of a statistic, not a site that repeats it.

A useful habit is SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims to the original.

Watch for red flags

• Headlines in ALL CAPS or designed to make you angry or afraid.
• No author, no date, no sources.
• A statistic with no link to where it came from.
• A website address imitating a real one (for example, an extra word or letter).

Try it

1. Find three sources on the same topic: one academic, one news, one blog or social media post.
2. Run each through the five checks: who, where, when, why, what evidence.
3. Pick one statistic from the weakest source and trace it back to its original.
4. Decide which source you'd cite in an assignment, and why.