How does one decide which source to choose from a list of results? Generally, consider any assignment requirements first. For instance if you need to use sources from the past seven (7) years or an academic article from a peer-reviewed journal. Then read the titles of the results in the list. If the title seems to be related to your topic be sure to read the abstract, or the synopsis of the article to learn more of what the article is discussing. If the title and the abstract seem related to your topic or research question and it meets your assignment requirements it could be a potential source for your research assignment. The only way to know for sure is to read the article. If you are researching to find sources and will be spending time later to look at them more closely, make sure to collect a citation and permalink, or save a PDF the source in some other way, like on your device or in a cloud drive.
The following video shows this process in action with narration.
Evaluating Search Results in a Specific Database (2020) from Columbia College Chicago Library Tutorials. (Closed captions and transcript is available on YouTube.) 5:38 minutes
