This badge signifies the completion of the course An Animal Trainer’s Guide to Sorting Journal Article Gems from Junk

As animal training moves more towards evidence-based practices, it is beneficial to become excellent critical thinkers. This means learning to critically appraise scholarly literature.  It can take practice to become fluent in this behavior, but the benefits are tremendous, not only in terms of our knowledge but also in terms of helping us decide what practices to implement to improve our animal training and, ultimately, animal welfare.  We must evaluate several factors carefully. These include the publication, the type of article, the peer reviewers, the peer review process, the article’s reliability, its validity, and the author’s credibility.  Each element should be examined further to expose important details that can help determine if an article is a gem to add to your library or junk destined for the trash bin. Critically appraising literature is no small task, but it is well worth it. You will learn to spot the diamonds quickly!

This course takes 1 hour to complete.