First-Year Foundations

The process of creating information

• Different kinds of information go through different processes to meet different needs.
• At many points throughout your university career, you will be asked to use "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" articles:
  • Published in academic journals.
  • Must meet strict criteria in how they are created and published.
  • Purpose: to share trustworthy research with students, faculty, and other people in a field of scholarship.

Scholarly research in peer-reviewed journals

The process:

• The scholar must get the necessary permissions and money to conduct their research.
  • If a scholar wants to conduct experimental research using human subjects, they often need to apply to their university's institutional review board (IRB) for permission.
  • They also often must apply to their university or to a funding agency to get money to conduct the research.
  • Their application(s) will outline their purpose and plans for conducting the research, such as what kind of study it is, whether they will be working with human subjects, risks in conducting the research, and so on.
• Next, the scholar will conduct their research and write an article describing their findings.
• The research paper is then submitted to a journal and goes through a process called peer review.
  • During this process, other scholars in that field (i.e. the author's peers) look over the article and evaluate:
    • whether the research was conducted correctly and ethically.
    • whether the findings make sense.
    • whether the conclusions drawn by the researchers are well-supported.
  • The peer reviewers may suggest changes or point out issues that the author needs to address.
    • It is possible for a paper to be accepted for publication immediately without any suggested changes, but most papers go through at least one round of revisions.
    • This process may go back and forth several times.
• If the peer reviewers are satisfied with the paper after these edits, they recommend to the journal to publish it.
  • Even after acceptance, there are often several rounds of communication between the authors and copyeditors, typesetters, and so forth at the journal to format the article properly for publication.

Creation process for other types of information

Other information formats may go through different creation processes, depending on the need they are attempting to meet.

• Books or book chapters may be peer-reviewed or may be reviewed by an editor or team of editors.
  • They may be aimed at a general or a scholarly audience.
  • Potential information needs that books and book chapters can satisfy:
    • Discussing topics that require greater length to properly explore and/or explain than is possible in a journal article.
    • Discussing broader topics, as opposed to a more narrowly-focused journal article.
• For conference materials, a panel of experts may judge applications before the materials are actually written, or they may invite scholars to create materials for the conference.
  • The final products may or may not go through peer review.
  • They may be presented as a paper, poster, slides, or another format.
  • Potential information needs that conference materials can satisfy:
    • Sharing very recent findings that have not yet been evaluated through the traditional peer review/journal article process.
    • Sharing recent findings with other scholars in the field.
• Magazine or newspaper articles are usually evaluated by editors who may be looking at articles on many different subjects.
  • Not generally held to the same level of scholarship as peer-reviewed articles.
  • May be looking for general readability and do only basic fact-checking.
  • Potential information needs that can be met with magazines or newspapers:
    • Sharing information with a general audience.

The information cycle as an iterative process

• New knowledge is constantly constructed in response to existing knowledge.
  • Academic article is published ➔ other scholars try to replicate or refute findings.
  • Academic article is published ➔ popular magazine writes about its findings in a manner understandable to general audiences.
  • Book is published ➔ book is reviewed in scholarly journals, on social media, or in the news.

The below video will start 49 seconds in. It will bring you directly to the relevant portion about different kinds of information sources, the timescales in which they are published, and the varying needs they can meet. Closed captioning is available within the video.

Transcript

By understanding the information cycle, Maria, and you both will be better able to recognize what type of information is available on a topic, when, and in what format.

According to the University of Illinois, the information cycle is a progression of media coverage of a particular newsworthy event. This means that information becomes available in different formats in the days, weeks, months, and years following an event.

On the day of an event, social media breaks the news. Shortly after, it is addressed online, on TV, and on the radio. At this point, we learn the who, what, why, and where of an event through quick but vague updates.

The next day, we see newspapers publish more in-depth reports. These reports touch on the most current information available, as well as provide background information about the event.

In the following week or weeks, popular and news magazines cover the aftermath and the impact on society and culture, as well as offer a detailed analysis on what happened. As you may have noticed, all of these formats are intended for a general audience.

It takes about six months to a year for the event to be addressed by the academic community in the form of academic journal articles. These articles are published in peer-reviewed journals, which means that their credibility and accuracy is confirmed by the academic community. Scholarly articles provide a critical study of the event and bring in theory as well as empirical research to support their arguments.

Lastly, it is not for a year or even years after an event has occurred that we see both scholarly and popular books being published. Although the intended audience may vary, books offer a comprehensive look at the event.

Within the same time frame, government reports—such as public policies, legislation, and statistical analysis—are made available to the public.

The information cycle shows us that research is iterative. Information creation as a process means that the format, purpose, and delivery of information are all intentional and informed by other formats.

So when looking for information to support your research, think about:
– When an event occurred
– What type of information is available
– What format supports your research

And adjust your topic accordingly.

How can we get better at sorting truth from fiction for online sources?

Follow the SIFT method

In the following video, you'll learn how to evaluate non-academic information sources using the SIFT method. Closed captioning is available on the video and a transcript can also be found below.

Transcript

In this short video, you’ll learn how to evaluate non-academic information sources, like a post, YouTube video, or news article, using the SIFT method. You can use this simple tool to evaluate a source for its accuracy, credibility, and reliability.

SIFT refers to stop before you read, investigate the source, find better coverage, and trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context.

The first step reminds you that before you read or share a source like a news article, stop to make sure you can trust it.

Ask yourself, was it recently published? Are you familiar with the publisher, the platform, or the claims made in the source? Does this source fit the purpose of your research? If you aren't sure, continue following the steps of SIFT.

So, next you’ll want to Investigate the Source.

Try to uncover: Who is the author and can I trust them? What is their reputation and expertise on the source’s subject? Who published the source and what is the reputation of the site, news organization, or social media account? There are several websites you can use to check if the author and source are reliable.

You can review the source website’s “About” page to discover who is associated with the site and what the purpose of the site is.

A Google search and Wikipedia can also provide you with useful background information on your source’s author and organization.

This will help you quickly determine if the information is from either a bogus or reputable site.

You can also use independent sites, like Media Bias Fact Check, to determine if the source’s website, channel, or platform is known to be biased or reliable. What is the organization’s bias rating and credibility rating?

After you investigate, then you should find better coverage.

Look for other trusted sources, such as well-known and respected news sites, reporting the same facts, data, or story found in your post or news article. Can you find other reputable and reliable sources that confirm the facts in your news article? If you can't find any reputable news articles or scholarly articles to corroborate the story, that can be a red flag that your article may contain false or misleading information.

The last step in SIFT is to trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context.

Ask yourself, is your article reporting new information or reporting from existing sources? What is the original source of major facts or quotes found in your news article? Does your article clearly identify or link to where the information came from? Is the original source trustworthy? Are the facts or data accurately depicted in your news article?

These are some good practices to follow and questions to consider as you evaluate if a non-academic information source is credible and worth using to meet your research needs. Following each of these steps in the SIFT method can help you navigate the research process to find reliable information sources.

Remember, you can always ask a librarian for research assistance. We are here to help you.

Sources for the SIFT infographic, SIFT video and this section:

Caulfield, M. (2019, February). Introducing SIFT. Check, please! starter course. https://web.archive.org/web/20241129095839/https://checkpleasecc.notion.site/Introducing-SIFT-04db7879dd7a4efaa76bfb2397d11ffd 

Caulfield, M. (2019, June 19). SIFT (the four moves). Hapgood. https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves 

Does SIFT work for evaluating all kinds of resources? Well, not exactly.

SIFT works best when you’re trying to quickly check the accuracy of something you’ve seen in the news or on social media, especially to see if it lines up with what most sources are saying. But it’s not designed for digging into academic or scientific research—that’s where you’ll need different strategies, like checking whether the article is peer-reviewed or published by a scholarly press.

In other words, SIFT is designed to help you quickly check the accuracy of facts and get a sense of what most people or sources are saying in news and social media, not to answer big, complex questions in science or scholarship.

Here is a useful distinction between these two mindsets based on writing by librarian Aaron Tay:

1. The Information Consumer Mindset is most appropriate for using SIFT to evaluate information sources like social media posts, news articles, YouTube videos, etc. Your goal here isn’t to become an expert, but to avoid falling for misinformation or heavily biased sources. SIFT helps you differentiate trustworthy sources from bad ones, recognize scams or misleading claims, and identify the general expert consensus. This kind of thinking helps you be a smart, informed person in everyday life.

2. The Academic Researcher Mindset requires you to go beyond SIFT to a more rigorous approach to seeking and evaluating information sources and should be applied for academic work, like writing a research paper or exploring a complex question in depth. Here, your goal isn’t just to find what most people think. Instead, you're digging into different viewpoints, analyzing arguments, and maybe even creating your own ideas. In this case, SIFT alone isn’t enough; you need to use more advanced tools and research strategies, like evaluating scholarly and peer-reviewed sources and understanding how knowledge is built over time. You’re not just consuming information, you’re learning how to contribute to it.

Source: 

Tay, A. (2025, July 9). Fact checking vs Academic inquiry mindset - are people confusing the two? A discussion [Substack newsletter]. Aaron Tay’s Musings about Librarianship. https://aarontay.substack.com/p/fact-checking-vs-academic-inquiry 

Check your understanding of Evaluating Sources by completing the practice quiz below.

You may also open the quiz in a new tab or window using this link: Evaluating Sources - FFC Practice Quiz