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Evidence literacy

How to check whether a source cites its evidence

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Photo: Cavalier SFS Spartan Café opens, brings community together (2003241811) by Tech. Sgt. BreeAnn Sachs (Public domain), via Openverse

A trustworthy claim usually points toward where its underlying evidence came from, whether that is a study, an official dataset or a named original document that can be checked, rather than simply asserting something as though it were self evidently true without any visible foundation at all, an approach worth treating with real scepticism from the outset.

Sources that make strong claims without citing anything specific deserve extra scrutiny, since the absence of a traceable source makes it impossible to check whether the claim holds up under closer examination, and that difficulty is sometimes, though not always, a sign the claim would not survive close checking.

Following a citation back to its original source, rather than trusting that it says what is claimed without checking, is worth the small effort it takes, since citations are occasionally mismatched with the point they are supposedly supporting, sometimes through carelessness rather than any real intent to mislead a reader.

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