Oh CRAAP!!
Think about the sources you are using in your paper.
If you are not sure about a website, judge it based on the CRAAP test.
Currency - When was the information published or last updated?
Relevance - Does the information answer your research question?
Authority - What are the author’s credentials?
Accuracy - Are there statements you know to be false?
Purpose - Is the author’s purpose to sell, persuade, entertain, or inform?
How good is your source? Use this form to help you determine its value.
Reference and Collection Development Librarian
Finding Background Information
- Gale eBooks - Tunxis Campus This link opens in a new window Gale eBooks collection includes a variety of topics and subjects.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Credo Reference is a general knowledge database providing articles, images, charts, maps and other materials on thousands of topics. With 750+ searchable, full-text titles, Credo Reference places particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are more than 1,100 short reference videos, more than 475,000 high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas.
Try Statista to Find Data and Statistics
Some sample searches:
Nutrition and fast food
Eating behavior in the US
Food and advertising
Statista sources cover business and industry as well as education, political and social issues. The service also provides tools that allow you to create beautiful charts that can be downloaded as PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, or graphics formats.
- Statista This link opens in a new window Use Statista for immediate access to over one million statistics and facts. Statista is an online platform specialized in market and consumer data, which offers statistics and reports, market insights, consumer insights and company insights in German, English, Spanish and French. Additional modules include Company Insights, Ecommerce Insights, Consumer Insights. The reports, charts, infographics, and statistics found in the database can be viewed online or downloaded.
Background Information-Reference Articles
Read the various points of view about your topic in these databases. Use the texts as a way to begin thinking critically about your issue. You will find ideas that support your position as well as opposing viewpoints. You may even read something that makes you think about something you hadn’t considered.
I find it works well to start with general terms and search for keywords such as "nutrition" or "food swamps."
- Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window Featuring a dynamic design and a wealth of features, Issues & Controversies helps researchers understand today's crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Issues and Controversies provides up-to-date, in-depth and objective information on prominent and hotly debated issues. It combines objective analysis with clear explanations of opposing points of view. Chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information augment the balanced, accurate coverage of current and historical events.
- In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Opposing Viewpoints offers material to support differing views to help develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, statistics, websites and multimedia. Find overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues, including racism, capital punishment, global warming, and voting rights with reference sources, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly journals, court cases, government documents, viewpoints, maps, images, audio, video and websites.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window CQ Researcher offers in-depth, unbiased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on a wide range of topics including: health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, the U.S. economy, crime, and civil liberties. This acclaimed and award-winning weekly publication provides a balanced view of today's most pressing social, political, and economic issues. Each weekly report covers the given topic in a non-sensationalized manner, and many reports feature a pro/con debate, highlighting both sides of the argument. Access over 700 hot topics with pros and cons for your research papers and projects.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Dietary Supplement Fact SheetsThe Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) fact sheets give a current overview of individual vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements. ODS has fact sheets in two versions—Health Professional and Consumer. Both versions provide the same types of information but vary in the level of detail
Magazines, Journals, & Newspapers
Articles are good sources for:
- most recent research or information on a topic
- coverage of a very narrow topic
- coverage of current events
- contemporary accounts of past events and research
Use these Tunxis databases to find texts that support your argument:
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
MLA Help Online
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Using MLA Format at the MLA Style Guide website
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Purdue OWL: Sample Works Cited Page
Most Library Databases have built in citation tools. Ask a Librarian.