Adults must possess many skills to access and evaluate credible science-based information on the Internet, especially when the science-based topics are tinged with levels of disagreement or controversy. To navigate these controversial science-based topics, adults need to have digital, science, and information literacy skills. The present qualitative study focused on two controversial science-based topics and used Hilligoss and Riehs (2008) Unifying Framework of Credibility Assessment Model as the guiding conceptual framework to attend to the following research questions: 1) How do non-science experts define credible science information?, 2) What general rules and cues do participants use to select credible science-based websites during an online search?, and 3) How do participants evaluate credible controversial science-based resources found online? Eight adults participated in this qualitative research study.Real-time search data was collected and analyzed to yield two major conclusions: 1) learners draw from firsthand experiences and experiences of others to assign credibility to online science-based resources and 2) non-science experts proved to be competent in digital, science, and information literacies. Implications from this study provide three strategies for those tasked with disseminating science-based resources online especially when the resources contribute to literature pertaining to controversial science-based tropics such as fracking and climate change. The three strategies indicate the need to 1) internally evaluate online resources, 2) conduct usability study of online resources, and 3) stay dynamic to meet changing adult audience needs, interests, and abilities. Bottom line, constructs used by adults to define credible controversial science-based information are varied and complex. Evaluation of a homogeneous participant group in a specific learning context and focused on two science-based search topics did not yield a one size fits all approach to ways in which credible science-based information on controversial topics of fracking and climate change. However, this current research study supports the notion that adults, even non-experts in the subject matter, possess digital literacy skills, science literacy skills, and information literacy skills to make credible resource judgments.