What to Evaluate
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Points to check when evaluating information:
Authority
- Who is the author?
- Are they respected in their field?
- Has your supervisor mentioned this author?
You may want to check:
- Can you find this author when doing a search?
- Is this author mentioned in the reference lists of any resources you found?
- Does this author have any other books in the library?
- Have they written other articles - check the library databases?
- Have they been quoted in other articles - check the library databases?
- If they are the author of a website, have you checked for a contact email address and postal address?
- Is the web page hosted on a reputable web site, for example an educational website (.edu) or a government site (.gov) ?
- Are links provided to authors or organisations that you recognise?
Date
The age of information can influence whether a resource is useful or not. Consider:
- What is the date that the item was published? Is the publication date appropriate for your needs?
- Is your research topic restricted by a particular date range? For some information, it may not matter that the work is not current. For example, historical items such as Constitution, classics of fiction eg Oliver Twist
- Current information is critical in some areas eg. information technology
- For electronic sources check if there are dates available, such as last updated date
- For electronic sources, is the information stable, or could it disappear tomorrow? You may not want to use information that will not be available when your assignment is being marked
Relevance
Think about what you are searching for. You have to focus carefully on your topic and get information that is relevant, not just interesting to you. Consider:
- Is the information relevant to your topic?
- Is the target audience appropriate, eg is it scholarly or popular?
Publisher
- Is the publisher reputable?
- For electronic sources, are there any distinguishing headers, footers or watermarks to indicate it is an official site?
Bias
It is important to remember that everyone has an opinion, and they are representing their point of view. Some ways to check for bias include:
- Is the author affiliated with an organisation with a clear bias on the issue?
- Is the document sponsored by an organisation that has a clear stake in the issue?
- If you are looking at a commercial website, assume that the company will be promoting its services or products
Is the information located on a site affiliated with an organisation that works in that area?
- Political organisations are promoting themselves, and will not be positive towards those parties opposing them.
Content
It is also important to get all of the relevant information for your topic:
- Does the information cover all aspects of a subject area?
- Are topics investigated in depth?
- Is it a comprehensive source, or does it have limited coverage?
- How valuable is the information to your topic?
Reviews
A good way to evaluate the worth of information is to check whether it has been useful to other people:
- Have other people, who are experts in the area, reviewed this information?
- Was it recommended as a good information source?
- For electronic sources, have other websites you trust linked to the site?
- You can find reviews in professional journals, review journals (Australian Book Review), and select newspapers, eg The Australian; Times Literary Supplement
Accuracy
It is also important to verify the accuracy of your sources:
- Have you checked that adequate explanation of the research methodology has been included?
- Can information from the source be verified for accuracy?
- Do you recognise authors in the bibliography?
- If an electronic source, does the research document provide links in the bibliography to other sources?
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