What Is a Credible Source?

It is important to evaluate your sources to ensure that they are credible. There are many qualities that determine whether or not a source will be useful for your research. A credible source is generally unbiased and is backed up with evidence. While you are researching, you want to make sure that your sources are trustworthy.

One way to determine if a source is credible is whether or not it has been peer-reviewed Links to an external site. (3-minute video by NCSU). Scholarly journal articles are often peer-reviewed, but they are not the only type of source that may go through the process. Also, not all scholarly sources are peer-reviewed. The next pages of this module will show you additional ways to evaluate sources to find ones that are credible.

A jigsaw puzzle made up of 4 pieces. One piece is provenance, another is data, the third piece is trust, and the fourth piece is credibility. They are all connected together to make up the components of something that is credible

The library databases Links to an external site. and other search tools such as OneSearch Links to an external site. are great places to start for finding credible sources. However, you may end up finding sources online from search engines or other locations and you will need to determine if what you found is a credible source.