Evaluating information

Not all information you come across is reliable for use in academic work. It's important to evaluate your sources to ensure they're relevant, authoritative and accurate.

Below are seven questions you can use to evaluate the reliability of a source, along with some tips on how to apply them.

Is my source reliable?

The credibility or reliability of your source is established by the credentials of the author(s) and the publication.

Check for:

a reputable publisher
a peer review process
scholarly content.
You may be required to use only scholarly or peer-reviewed sources for your assignment.

What is a scholarly source?
Scholarly sources are written by experts in a field and serve to keep others in that field up to date on the most recent research, findings, and news.

Scholarly sources include:

conference publications
journal articles
books.
What is a peer-reviewed source?
A peer-reviewed source has gone through a rigorous editorial review process involving approval from the author's peers (experts that work in the same field) prior to publication.

Most (but not all) scholarly sources are peer reviewed.

Based on this process, peer-reviewed periodicals have the most academic credibility.

If your source is published by a university press (for example, Oxford University Press) it's more likely to be scholarly and peer reviewed.

You can get a reasonable idea of the publisher of a web page by looking at the domain name within the URL. However, domain names do not always reflect the true nature of the organisation and cannot be considered the definitive authentication of a site.

Tipsheet: Evaluating your resources (PDF, 242KB)
Who is the author?
Reliable sources should clearly indicate the author responsible for the work.

The author may be an individual, a corporation or a sponsoring agency such as an association or organisation.

Check for:

clear attribution to an author or authors
the author's qualifications and experience (including past publications)
the author's affiliations (are they affiliated with reputable institutions and organisations?).
Most scholarly publications will list the author's qualifications and their affiliated institution or organisation in the form of a formal title or a full author biography.

Reputable websites will clearly indicate who produced their content, usually at the bottom of the page or in an ‘About' link.

Without knowledge of the author, you can't be sure that your source is valid.

Is my source valid?

To confirm the validity of your source, try to evaluate its research process.

This is particularly important for reports, articles, essays and research findings.

Check for:

a reference list
methods based on established principles and industry standards
a transparent list of any assumptions
an acknowledgement of possible sources of error.
Your source may have some of these or all of them, depending on its format.

If there are no references or links to other sources, then you can't be sure that your source is valid and supported.

What about images?
Images are especially tricky to validate and easy to manipulate.

If an image is relied upon to make a point, consider whether that image is authentic.

Check for:

an original source
acknowledgement of copyright.
If you can't find a source or copyright owner, the image may be fake.

Is my source accurate?

Accurate sources should contain references and in-text citations to confirm data and factual statements.

Check for:

sources to confirm data and factual statements
thorough editing of spelling and grammar.
Without clear sources, the accuracy of the information may be questionable.

When sources are listed, you should also evaluate the cited publications to ensure that sources haven't been misquoted, misrepresented or misinterpreted.

Errors in spelling and grammar can also indicate that an article hasn't been thoroughly checked for inaccuracies.

When was my source published?
Most reliable sources should indicate a date of publication.

Check for:

a publication date
the publication date of any references, data and sources
any updated versions.
Online sources, in particular, may be updated continuously or at regular intervals, such as monthly or annually. It's sometimes difficult to determine whether the date refers to when the information was first written or last revised.

If a source provides no information on when it was created or published, it may not be appropriate to use.

Is timeliness important for me?

Some information remains valid over time, while other information may become discredited or obsolete, for example:

the Australian Constitution is still valid after 100 years
older maps may not reflect recent geopolitical changes
research findings may have been debunked by recent studies.
Currency of information is more important in fields that are rapidly and continuously developing such as information technology, business and science.

Remember, each assignment is different and the uniqueness of your topic or the depth of your analysis may be more important than being on the cutting edge.

Is my source biased?

Some sources are published to advocate for a particular point of view, to persuade the reader or to promote a product or service.

In these cases, information may be given out of context and the author's viewpoint may influence the content of the material.

Check for:

the purpose of the information
information or data that has been intentionally or inexplicably excluded
vague or inflammatory language used.
A reputable source should present all facts and cover all perspectives on a topic.

If a source fails to consider contradictory or conflicting information and fails to demonstrate an awareness of alternative views, it may be biased and trying to persuade you.

Reputable sources should also be written using language that is objective and specific.

Use of emotionally inflammatory language or vague generalisations may be a clue that the information is biased or misrepresents the facts.