Evaluating Sources
Evaluating sources for relevance and credibility is important to establish the validity of the data and ideas within. There is never a 100% perfect source. You will need to make educated guesses about whether the information is good enough for your purpose.
Critical thinking is a necessary skill your professors and employers will expect. Learning to evaluate sources can also keep you from being duped by fake news and taken advantage of by posts that are ignorant or simply scams.
Here are the five basic criteria, with key questions and indicators to help you evaluate your source:
Authority
Key Question: Is the person, organization, or institution responsible for the intellectual content of the information knowledgeable in that subject?
Indicators of authority: formal academic degrees, years of professional experience, active and substantial involvement in a particular area
Accuracy
Key Question: How free from error is this piece of information?
Indicators of accuracy: correct and verifiable citations, information is verifiable in other sources from different authors/organizations, author is authority on subject
Objectivity
Key Question: How objective is this piece of information?
Indicators of objectivity: multiple points of view are acknowledged and discussed logically and clearly, statements are supported with documentation from a variety of reliable sources, purpose is clearly stated
Currency
Key Question: When was the item of information published or produced?
Indicators of currency: publication date, assignment restrictions (e.g., you can only use articles from the last 5 years), your topic and how quickly information changes in your field (e.g., technology or health topics will require very recent information to reflect rapidly changing areas of expertise)
Audience
Key Question: Who is this information written for or this product developed for?
Indicators of audience: language, style, tone, bibliographies
When evaluating and selecting sources for an assignment or work project, compare your sources to one another considering your topic. Imagine, for example, you are writing a paper about bicycle commuting. You have three sources about bicycle safety. One is written for children; one is for adult recreational bicyclers; and one is for traffic engineers. Your topic is specifically about building urban and suburban infrastructure to encourage bicycling, so the source written for traffic engineers is clearly more appropriate for your topic than the other two. Even if the other two are high-quality sources, they are not the most relevant sources for your specific topic.
Until you’ve practiced evaluating many sources, it can be difficult to find the red flags of questionable sources.
The table below provides an overview of what to look for when evaluating your source material.
| If you are looking for indications of… | In books see the… | In journals see the… | In websites see the… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authority | Title page, Forward, Preface, Afterward, Dust Jackets, Bibliography | Periodical covers, Editorial Staff, Letters to the Editor, Abstract, Bibliography | URL, About Us, Publications, Apperance |
| Accuracy | Title page, Forward, Preface, Afterward, Periodical covers, Dust Jackets, Text, Bibliography | Periodical covers, Text, Bibliography | URL, About Us, Homepage, Awards, Text |
| Objectivity | Forward, Preface, Afterward, Text, Bibliography | Abstracts, Text, Bibliography, Editorials, Letters to the Editor | About Us, Site Map, Text, Disclaimers, Membership/Registration |
| Currency | Title page, Copyright page, Bibliography | Title page, Bibliography, Abstracts | Homepage, Copyright, What’s New |
| Audience | Forward, Preface, Afterward | Letters to the Editor, Editorial, Appearance | Homepage, About, Mission, Disclaimer, Members Only |
