Information Literacy Modules: Evaluation of Sources

Introduction

All sources are not equal and the choice and quality of the sources you select to include in your research paper are as important as your grammar and organization. Therefore, it is always necessary to use your judgment or critical thinking skills to evaluate the information you are gathering during the research process. This is especially important when using material from the internet.  When deciding whether a source is credible or not, you must first decide what you need, what type of source you need, and then apply a guideline on how you are going to evaluate whether the source can be used for your research.

How will you to determine whether a book, website, article or other source is sufficient for academic research for your college-level assignment?

This module will guide you through that evaluation process.

All sources are not equal and the choice and quality of the sources you select to include in your research paper are as important as your grammar and organization. Therefore, it is always necessary to use your judgment or critical thinking skills to evaluate the information you are gathering during the research process. This is especially important when using material from the internet.

Books, magazines and other materials available in the library or from digital resources provided by the St Johns River State College Library have been chosen and purchased by academic librarians who are information professionals. The evaluation process has been done for you. Using the Library digital resources assures that the evaluative process has been done. Our collection of resources has been through the publication process where they are reviewed by editors and fact-checkers before they are published.

When selecting a resource on your own, it is especially important use a set of guidelines or questions about your source to guide your evaluative process.

Relevance & Coverage

1. Does this pertain to your topic?
2. Is this important to your topic?
3. Will this support your thesis statement?
4. What is the depth of the coverage? Detailed or skimmed the surface?

Authority

1. Who is author? A good source to use
2. Are the authors credentials listed?
3. Is there contact information like an email address or social media contact?

Accuracy & Verifiability

1. Are there references to check validity?
2. Is the data available on claims made?
3. Can you verify the information in an independent source? (Like population data from Census.gov)

Bias & Objectivity

1. Is this author expressing their opinion as fact?
2. Are they trying to sway your viewpoint?
3. Is it an editorial opinion?
4. What is the purpose of the information? Teach/ entertain? Sell? Persuade?

Currency & Timeliness

1. When was this written?
2. Is the information dated?
3. When was the information revised?
4. Is the date of the information relational to the source?

Scope & Depth

1. Does it have breadth? Broad in scope
2. Does it have depth? Intense in scope

Intended Audience & Purpose

1. Who is this written for?
2. What are they accomplishing by writing this?

Please note:  There are no such standards for publication on the Web. With a minimum of knowledge and equipment literally anyone can publish anything on the Web.

There are, however, a number of strategies that can be employed to make sure you collect only reliable, quality material for inclusion in your paper.