Information sources vary in their reliability.
The ability to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources of information is referred to as information literacy. It’s the key to drawing reasonable, evidence-based conclusions about any given issue or topic, and it is especially important in cases like that of BPA because when it comes to scientific issues, hyperbole and misinformation abound.
Information literacy
The ability to find and evaluate the quality of information.
Primary sources are sources that present new and original data or information, including novel scientific experiments and firsthand accounts of any given observation. Scientific journals are primary sources; they contain original reports of scientific studies. Almost all of these reports, or papers, are rigorously evaluated through peer review—a process whereby experts in the field (a panel of the author’s or authors’ “peers”) assess the quality of the study’s design, data, and statistical analysis, as well as the soundness of the paper’s conclusions. Good studies are published; bad ones are rejected. There has been a recent, rapid increase of open-access online journals (articles available without a paid subscription), but the quality of peer review varies greatly among these journals.
primary sources
Sources that present new and original data or information, including novel scientific experiments or observations and firsthand accounts of any given event.
peer review
A process whereby researchers submit a report of their work to outside experts who evaluate the study’s design and results to determine whether it is of a high enough quality to publish.
Secondary sources present and interpret information solely from primary sources. Tertiary sources present and interpret at least some information from secondary sources. Because they usually use secondary sources, even if they also use some primary sources of information, most books, including textbooks, and reports from the popular press are tertiary sources. Most blogs, websites, and even news shows also qualify as tertiary sources: They provide additional commentary on, or foster debate over, reports from the popular press. INFOGRAPHIC 3.1
secondary sources
Sources that present and interpret information solely from primary sources.
tertiary sources
Sources that present and interpret information from secondary sources.
INFORMATION SOURCES
Look at the references cited at the end of this chapter. Does this chapter qualify as a primary, secondary, or tertiary resource?
Based on these references, this would be a primary source since all of these references are accounts of original research. (NOTE: Even the article on peer review reported original research on the effectiveness of peer review in open access journals.)
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KEY CONCEPT 3.3
Published information about toxics (and other scientific topics) abounds in our modern world. It is up to an individual, using information literacy skills, to determine the reliability of that information.
Because the popular (nonscientific) press runs on catchy sound bites and easily digestible bits of information, news outlets (both secondary and tertiary) tend to oversimplify the results of individual studies or present them as if they provided definitive answers. But there are rarely easy answers to environmental questions, and science is almost never as straightforward as we would like it to be. In fact, by its very nature, science is incremental; each study is just one small piece of a much larger puzzle, and existing hypotheses are subject to endless revision and qualification as new bits of data trickle in.