Library Research Guides
Library Research Guides
Start your research off right, by knowing where to look and how to evaluate the credibility of your sources.
Use this guide for Disease Team Assignments and biomedical research directions.
For the purposes of this class, there is no required citation style, but you must cite your sources fully and consistently!
Wikipedia can be really useful when you need to understand a concept that you are unfamiliar with. While you should cite any source you use (for academic honesty), when citing Wikipedia, you should also be sure to go a step further and find more relevant and authoritative sources as well.
Because anyone in the world with access can update and change Wikipedia entries there can be a concern of inaccurate information. Wikipedia can be helpful to inform you about a disease or concept - just find additional authoritative sources to verify the information and cite in your assignments.
"First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, the Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers."
Your textbook.
"At the American Cancer Society, we’re on a mission to free the world from cancer. Until we do, we’ll be funding and conducting research, sharing expert information, supporting patients, and spreading the word about prevention. All so you can live longer — and better."
Kidney disease guidelines and resources.
Research source on cardiac health.
Check out this video above that goes into detail about how to sleuth out the truth when doing online research. When it comes to medical and health information we want to rely on empirical conclusions over myths.
Remember that it is up to you to evaluate and read the sources you find through Google critically. Actually, with every source of information you use it is important to evaluate and read it critically. Ask yourself the 5 Ws + H + C: (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Credible?) to your sources so that you are not spreading inaccurate information. Your assignments and your understanding of diseases as they affect the human body will improve as the quality of your sources improve.
When you think about any source of information, these are some questions you can pose to evaluate it.
who is the author? what are their qualifications?
what was the editing process? was it self-published? was it peer reviewed? was it a professional publisher--newspaper, magazine, book, academic journal?
where did the author get their information? are credible sources cited in a reference list or hyperlinked?
when was it published? is it timely for your topic?
why did the author write this? why was it published? was the purpose to educate, inform, sell, persuade, other? is there an agenda or unfair bias?
how is this source relevant to your research topic?
is this source credible?
Research Guides by Egan Library | University of Alaska Southeast are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
