Judge whether a source is credible enough to cite in my paper
A quick credibility check of a source with reasons, red flags, and what to verify before citing it.
The prompt
Help me decide whether this source is good enough to use in a school paper.
The source: [TITLE, AUTHOR, PUBLISHER OR WEBSITE, DATE, and a link or the text/abstract]
How I want to use it: [e.g. "as evidence for my main claim", "for background statistics"]
My assignment's source rules: [e.g. "peer-reviewed only", "at least 3 scholarly sources"]
Subject: [e.g. psychology, history, environmental science]
Evaluate it on:
- Who made it: author credentials and whether the publisher has editorial standards.
- Type: peer-reviewed study, book, news report, opinion piece, government data, blog, or sponsored content.
- Evidence: does it cite data or sources I can trace?
- Purpose and bias: inform, persuade, or sell? Who funds it?
- Currency: is the date acceptable for this subject?
- Fit: does it support the claim I want to use it for, or only something nearby?
Return:
1. A verdict: Use / Use with caution / Find something better, with 2-3 reasons.
2. Any red flags.
3. What I should check myself before citing (e.g. confirm the author, find the original study).
4. Search terms or source types that would be stronger, if needed.
If you can't see the source itself, say what you are assuming and do not invent details about the author or publication. Remind me to check with my teacher or librarian if I'm unsure.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Research & Summaries prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "peer-reviewed only", "at least 3 scholarly sources"
- e.g. psychology, history, environmental science
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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