How Pharmacy Students Evaluate the Credibility of Scientific Information: A Qualitative Study

  Objective: This research is aimed at exploring the evaluation of information credibility and its related criteria from the viewpoints and experiences of PhD students in pharmacy in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: The qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Using convenience sampling method, 13 PhD students in pharmacy were selected. Rigor of the study was approved by member checking and external audit. A content analysis approach (inductive and deductive) was used for the analysis of the data. Results: Three themes, including “database evaluation”, “information source evaluation” and “content evaluation”, were extracted as the three most important components of the evaluation from students’ viewpoint. Nine primary criteria were extracted for the evaluation of information, including accessibility, coverage, learnability, relevancy, accuracy authority, currency, replicability and source validity. The desired criteria were categorized after considering subject and concept proximity. Conclusion: This study revealed the criteria considered by students for evaluating information. Challenges and limitations regarding the evaluation of information were identified. The findings of the study will help the central library and librarians realize and address the challenges and limitations of information use.