Below are skills some students may find useful in understanding sources.
| Skill | Beginner | Intermediate/Advanced |
| Select the appropriate type of source needed to find particular information (e.g., newspaper article for a short topic piece, reference entry for a broad overview of a topic or person, etc.) | X | |
| Distinguish between different types of articles (scholarly, popular, trade) | X | |
| Identify different types of scholarly, peer-reviewed sources (original research study, literature review, meta-analysis, systematic review, etc.) | X | |
| Determine the type of source in order to cite it correctly (e.g., is it a book chapter? a journal article?) | X | |
| Analyze sections of a peer-reviewed article and describe the type of information commonly found in each section | X |