C. Evaluating Sources for Credibility

SUMMARY:

• When looking at any source, the key questions to ask yourself are 1. who is writing this, and 2. why?
• EasyBib’s Website Evaluation tool helps you determine which websites are credible.

LINKS:

• EasyBib – Website Evaluation Guide
• Finding Dulcinea – Website Credibility
• Finding Dulcinea – The two most important questions to ask when evaluating a Web site
• Berkeley – Evaluating Webpages Techniques

When looking for sources–particularly websites–think about whether or not they are reliable. You want your paper to contain sources written by unbiased and professional experts, not businessmen with commercial interests.

Ask yourself the following questions to help you determine if a source is reliable:

Author

• Who is providing the information?
• What do you know about him/her and his/her credentials?
• Is he/she an expert?
• Can you find out more and contact him/her?
• Search for author or publisher in search engine. Has the author written several publications on the topic?

Publisher

• Is there a sponsor or affiliation?
• Who is linking to the page?
• Do they take responsibility for the content?

Bias

• Is the language free of emotion?
• Does the organization or author indicate there will be bias?
• Is the purpose of the website to inform or to spread an agenda?
• Are there ads? Are they trying to make money?
• Why did they write the article?
• (Website) Is the site a content farm? A content farm is a site whose content has been generated by teams of low-paid freelancers who write large amounts of text to raise the site’s search engine rankings.

Citations

• Copy and paste a sentence into Google to see if the text can be found elsewhere.
• (Website) Are there links to related sites? Are they organized?
• Are there citations or a bibliography provided?

Accuracy

• Is the data verifiable and accurate?

Accuracy

• Is the source comprehensive?

Currency

• When was the source last updated?
• Does the source even have a date?

Design

• Is the source professional?
• Does it seem like current design?

Reproduced

• Was it reproduced? If so, from where? Type a sentence in Google to verify.
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?

Keep in mind that everything is written from a particular social, cultural, and political perspective. Realize that some publications tend to be ‘slanted’ towards a certain viewpoint. For example, the CATO Institute is known for being libertarian, while The Nation is known to lean left. Keep these slants in mind when you are researching.

Students with MyBib Pro, School Edition, or Library edition have access to EasyBib’s Website Evaluation tool. This tool judges the top websites cited on EasyBib based on the above criteria. It helps you determine whether or not a website is credible.