MUIDS Science

EVALUATING THE CREDIBILITY OF YOUR SOURCES

Remember, sources are used to support and prove an argument you have made. This means that the sources you
reference need to be credible and authoritative. How do you know that your sources are of value? Answer the
following questions:

1. Where / How was the source published?

What is the organization that published this? Why should we trust information from this publishing
organization?

- The organization that published this website is The Journal of Alternation and
Complementary Medicine. We should trust this website because it is said in the website that
it is part of the Siriraj Medical Library. Siriraj is a very famous hospital and their sources are
probably very reliable. Furthermore, a lot of people has used this source to cite their papers.
2. Who wrote it? (Author / Organization)

You can do some quick online research into the author. Is the author part of a university or another
institution? What else has the author written? Why should we trust this author?
- The author that wrote this is Katherine Creath and Gary E. Schwartz. is Katherine Creath

is in the Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
She has written other articles such as Phase-measurement interferometry techniques and
Basic wavefront aberration theory for optical metrology. Gary E. Schwartz (Ph.D.) is the
Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health. He is the author of
academic books such as The Afterlife Experiments and The Truth about Medium. We
should trust this author because both of them are graduated in a university and one of them
graduated with a Ph.D.
3. Is the piece timely and appropriate for its field? (updated? or outdated?)

For some topics, information needs to be current and up to date. For others, older publications might
still be valuable. Do you think the source is up to date enough for your topic? Why?
- This article is not actually very updated. It is published in 2004 which is not too far back.

For my topic, it doesnt need to be very updated since it is an experiment so I think its fine.
4. What is the purpose of the source? Does the author have an agenda?

Are the arguments backed by facts or opinions? Is the presented view biased?

- It is an experiment, collect of data, viewing the results of the data, and analyzing the results
of the data. The author does not have an agenda. The arguments are based on facts and it is not
presented by bias because it is an experiment.
5. Write the source down in an APA format:
Creath, K., & Schwartz, G.E., (2004). Measuring Effects of Music, Noise, and Healing Energy
Using a Seed Germination Bioassay, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10
(1), pp.113-122