Academics>Library>Instruction & Tutorials>Evaluating Sources

Alice E. Chatlos Library of Davis College

Evaluating Internet Sources

There is a great deal of information on the internet, but much of it is questionable or unreliable.  One of the skills students need in this information-rich society is the ability to not only find information, but to evaluate it as to its usefulness and reliability.

Type of Information

First, discern what type of information you are looking at.  Is this a popular, non-technical site?  Is it run by one person as a hobby?  While these can be good sites, you have to be careful taking factual and interpretative information from these kinds of sites.  Does the site evidence a strong bias?  Is the site run by some kind of advocacy group, with an ax to grind?  Or is this a site written by a scholar in the field?

Author

Second, determine who the author is.  What qualifications does he or she bring to the subject?  What organization does she or he represent or belong to?  Has this information been peer-reviewed, or examined and critiqued by other scholars, as happens in scholarly journals?  Does the author cite sources, and are those sources credible?  Is there a bibliography? 

Look for internal clues, such as misspellings, format, writing style (formal or informal), and voice (objective, opinionated, agenda).

Usefulness

Next, determine the usefulness of the information.  There are at least three aspects to this. 

First, is the information current enough?  For some subject areas, this is more important than for others.  For instance, in the medical or computer fields, information goes out of date very quickly. 

Second, how complete is the information?  Does the article have enough breadth to be useful? 

Last, what was the author's purpose?  Compare the author's purpose in writing with your informational need.     

When you evaluate information well, you can save a lot of time.  You can spend our intellectual energies on sources worthy of being studied and used.  Your research will be more credible and accurate, and your professors will be more convinced and impressed, as you use credible sources.