Evaluating Sources for Credibility
How do you determine what you are reading is accurate, reliable, and trustworthy? How do you decide that a source is appropriate for academic research?
When working with a potential source, ask yourself if you know the source, it's reputation, and the reputation of the information itself. If you don't, you will need to look further into it with some additional searching. This might mean looking for the author and publisher's expertise, reputation, background, or their agenda. Or it might mean confirming the individual pieces of information in other sources and considering what the consensus is.
If the source credits their sources, trace any claims or questionable information back to its original context. It's usually better to use the original source of the information, not the secondary source. This may lead you to more information and other sources you can use as well.
You'll also want to make sure that the information is current enough for your topic.
Lastly, remember your purpose. Does the source really meet your needs and answer your questions about your topic? Does it give you the information you need? The source should be the best source for your needs, not just any source or the first source you found.
It can be especially difficult to determine and avoid bias.
Determining Bias
Bias is an unfair belief or opinion for or against something.
Biased sources often purposely omit information about a topic. They may overemphasize, overly simplify, or make assumptions. Often biased sources give only one viewpoint and contain opinions and emotional language. The information they include can be difficult to confirm in other sources.
Unbiased sources will present multiple sides of an issue fairly. If the topic is controversial, they will discuss the reasons it is controversial and the facts related to any and all arguments about it. Unbiased sources are more likely to link to evidence and the sources they got information from.
Additional resources for evaluating information: