The source for this assignment was LibreTexts, a public website that provides a wealth of thematic information on academic disciplines. The platform positions itself as a service for gathering academic literature, so any article available on the site is an excerpt from a book or the result of a meta-analysis of sources. This is true of the current article, “The Structure of DNA,” which describes the function, structure, and biological significance of the most important molecule in nature (OpenStax, 2021). It is essential to recognize that this article has no in-text citations or references, which may be an indication of its low reliability. However, this is a misjudgment since the very essence of this platform is related to the high reliability of published information. Any information posted there has been derived from scholarly literature, so unlike Wikipedia, LibreTexts presents fully authoritative, academically reliable, and up-to-date information on the subject. For example, this particular article was written by a team of three university professors. The partnership between LibreTexts and the U.S. Department of Education is another argument for the website’s reliability. At the bottom of any page, there is always information about who developed the site and the support of which structures. For example, LibreTexts lists several reputable partners and describes the grants they have. In addition, the site indicates that it has a current license as an open textbook platform. These facts alone are sufficient evidence of the credibility of this website. To summarize, there is no reason to doubt the reliability of the information published on The Structure of DNA. A large amount of accessible, comprehensible text, mixed with illustrative images, allows for a better understanding of the topic being studied and for gaining the correct knowledge.
Reference
OpenStax. (2021). The structure of DNA. LibreTexts.