When evaluation authority of a source, you will undoubtedly come across a variety of sources that provide you with helpful information for your research. Before deciding to use a source in your scholarly writing, you should evaluate it using the following criteria. Following each criteria are a number of questions to help you determine whether a source should be used.
Currency
- When was the source published?
- Have there been updates or revisions?
- If online, do the links work?
- When was the source last updated, if at all?
- Is the information limited to a certain period of time?
- Is the information the kind that needs to be updated frequently?
Reliability
- What kind of source are you looking at (e.g. editorial newspaper article may not be as reliable as an expert's published journal article)?
- Does the author provide evidence to support their claims?
- Does the author provide citations to their sources? Are the sources cited trustworthy?
- Has the information been reviewed? If so, by who?
- Are you able to corroborate or verify the information being presented from another source?
- Is the information free of grammar, spelling, mechanical, or other obvious errors?
Authority
- Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
- What are the author's credentials, education, training, and experience?
- Is the author qualified to write on the topic presented?
- Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address?
- Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? examples: .com .edu .gov .org .net
- If an organization, is the organization well-known and respected?
Objectivity
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?
- Is the purpose for writing the information clear?
- Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, personal, or other biases?
Coverage
