Technological progress has brought about the era of information overload. It takes one click to find out any data that one may want to access. Still, not all the resources can be verified and trustworthy. If students are not capable of distinguishing between peer-reviewed and partially fake articles, they are unlikely to perform well at university. The gist of the problem lies in the fact that information does have the immense power to influence people’s minds. Any fake aims at making people, especially youngsters, adopt a wrong attitude to help somebody profit from it. Therefore, evaluation of resources is the art that should be mastered as soon as a freshman enters alma mater.
Indeed, one has to understand how journal articles are usually verified before conducting their own research. It turns out that top-notch journals reject about 90% of articles for the sake of their reputation (Robert E. Kennedy Library). This means that their articles not only deserve trust and can be cited by young researchers, but also that they present unique ideas. A peer-reviewed article is an article that has been approved by a group of professionals in the same field of science as its author. Nowadays, there are many tools that may provide access to a vast number of such articles. Therefore, a student is guaranteed only those pieces of information that cannot mislead them. However, without basic knowledge of acceptable articles, such as the relatively recent date of publication and the author’s degree, one can easily run into a misleading source of information.
To conclude, a student is expected to be vigilant while conducting research for university classes. The first skill to acquire at university is to analyze data and distinguish between trustworthy and unverified sources. Without those brilliant skills, one can easily be trapped by an author who is paid for spreading certain opinions and fake shreds of evidence. To use peer-reviewed articles means to practice good information hygiene.
Work Cited
Robert E. Kennedy Library: Evaluate the Credibility & Quality of Information Sources. Cal Poly, 2019. Web.