You may have seen the meme floating around social media.

A portrait of a historical figure, President Abraham Lincoln, next to a quote attributed to him: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” Of course Lincoln didn’t say this, nor Einstein or Socrates or any of the other faces utilized in reproductions of this meme. All joking aside, the point is that you shouldn’t take information from the internet at face value. Most internet users would probably agree with that, even if their actions sometimes suggest the opposite. Doubt and distrust are easy. The harder question is: what kind of information should we trust? What makes reliable sources reliable?

In a nutshell, reliable sources are those that provide information based on strong evidence. In the following section, we’ll explore what these kinds of sources look like and how to find them.