Evaluating Information

Read information you find with a critical eye! Consider these points when evaluating books, articles and web sites:

Who?

Who wrote the material? What ideas is the author trying to promote? Does the author seem unduly biased? Could this affect the conclusions drawn?

check:

• that the author's name is provided
• the author's affiliation -- is the author a scholar? staff reporter? free lancer?

What?

• Do the conclusions in the paper seem justified? Does the research make sense - i.e. if you were conducting this research, would you feel comfortable drawing the same conclusions based on the results?
• While you may not feel qualified to judge research in areas that are unfamiliar to you, read critically and take time to reflect using your common sense and critical thinking skills .
• What is the cultural, historical, or economic context of the material? How much of an impact does it have on the content?
• Consider what is not included as much as what is included.
• Was the research done by the author ("primary" source), or was the research a synthesis of research done by others ("secondary" source)?
• Does the auther cite sources used in the article? Does the author include footnotes? a bibliography?

Where?

check:

• the publisher -- is the publisher reputable? known to have an agenda?
• the type of journal in which the article is published (hint: most scholarly research appears in journals that are refereed or reviewed by peers - sometimes called "peer reviewed" journals)
• the reputation of the newspaper in which the article is published (is it from the Washington Post or the National Enquirer?)

When?

When was the information published? Is it too old to be useful? For many science, political science, and even some historical topics, it is very important to have information that is current.

Check:

• the copyright date, if you are using a book
• the publication date, if you are using a newspaper, magazine, or journal article
• the update/modified date, if you are using a website
• if statistics are used, check to see when they were compiled

For more information about evaluating information, see the following web pages or ask a librarian for some guidance:

Critical Evaluation of Resources from UC Berkeley Library
Evaluating Quality on the Net by Hope Tillman

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