Reliability of information

Why evaluate researched information?

Being able to critically evaluate information that you find to use for your assignments and research is crucial.
Evaluation of information involves being able to decide if the information sources are valuable and worth following up on, and if they are, is the information contained within the resource, adequate for your requirements. You need to be able to judge the quality of the information that you are finding.

Ask yourself the following:

1. Is the information from a reliable or trustworthy source?
2. Does the information appear to be based on facts and not opinion?
3. Does the author of the page or article identify themselves?

Once you have answered these three basic questions you can then evaluate the information even further for relevancy, currency, reliability, accuracy, and objectivity.

Criteria for evaluating information:

Relevancy

The criteria listed below may assist you to evaluate information resources and sources:

1. First and foremost you need to determine the Relevancy of the information you have found.

Always check the following to help you determine the relevancy of your information:

• Does the retrieved information cover your topic in enough depth?
• Does the retrieved information cover your topic at the appropriate academic level?
• Does the retrieved information cover your topic in the appropriate language and time period?
• Does the retrieved information cover your topic from the appropriate source?
• Do you require Primary Sources - which contain new or original material? (eg. diaries, interviews, letters, manuscripts, surveys).
• Do you require Secondary Sources - which contain information that has been analyzed or interpreted? (eg. books, journal articles, charts, maps)

Currency

2. Secondly you should determine how Current the information is, or is the information current for the time period you are researching. There is no point using material that is ten years old if you only require information from the last two years.

Always check the following to help you determine the currency of your information:

• The publication date of the material – (eg. Book, conference proceeding or journal article).
• References in the bibliography noting dates being cited.
• The date on the Web page to see when it was last updated

Reliability

3. Third, you should check the Reliability of any information source that you intend to use for academic work, particularly if the information has been found on the World Wide Web. Remember there is not single indicator of reliability. Some things to consider when determine if a piece of information is reliable are whether the author is credible and if what he/she is saying seems reasonable. Has the author referenced other credible work that supports the information? The following are some of the areas you should check in order to determine the reliability of the information you have found.

Always check the following to help you determine the reliability of your information:

• The author – who are they?, are they known in the field?
• The organization where the author works – do they work in a university or a place that is reputable (e.g. education or government organization).
• Bias of information (is the information an opinion or written from one point of view only).
• Is the information supported by evidence – such as facts, statistics or reports.

Reliability Checklist

The following is a checklist designed to help you check the reliability of the information you have found.

Check	Research	Ask the question	Action
	Identify the source	Who is providing the information?	Check domain ownership. Examine links to and from other web sites. Remember anyone can publish a web site.
	Discover the source’s expertise	Is the source an expert or authority?	Look for other publications by the author or publisher. Examine links to and from other websites. Examine grammar and spelling. Examine credentials in authors’ biographies and ‘about us’ pages. Independently verify credentials. College degrees – call registrars office. Professional associations – check professional directory. Is the person cited as an expert in the news or trade literature? Has the person published articles in trade literature or peer-reviewed publications?
	Determine the level of objectivity	Does the source provide a balanced viewpoint?	Examine the writing style. Is it trying to influence your opinion? Examine the advertising. Does it influence the content? Lack of objectivity does not necessarily mean the source provides substandard information. A persuasive writer intends to win your favour. He/she might use good facts and analysis to do so.
	Establish the date of publication	Is the information current at the time of publication?	Examine creation and revision dates. Do not rely on dates provided by search engines. Review facts and analysis in historical context. Assess the writing for time-sensitive information. Be cautious about descriptive words such as always, never, all, none and most. Be aware of scripting that creates the current date (display source code to detect). Stay away from undated information whether it’s presented as fact or commentary.
	Verify what the information claims	Can you find two or more reliable sources that provide the same information?	Use primary sources (sources that originate information) for facts. Secondary sources (sources that interpret facts) should provide cited references. Look for cited references. Reliable sources should meet all the selection criteria.

Accuracy

4. Fourth, you should determine the Accuracy of the information you intend to use for academic work. Information can be Relevant, Current, and from a Reliable source, but not Accurate. Accurate means that you should be able to find more then one reliable source that supports reports the same information and findings. If you can only find one source of information that you deemed as relevant, current, and reliable you need to reevaluate the accuracy of the information.

Always check the following to help you determine the accuracy of your information:

• Who the author is, and which group do they belong to? Are they a member of an organization that will be promoting their own views, and therefore the information may be biased? (eg. Greenpeace).
• Where have the facts or statistics come from? Are they from a reliable source, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, or the World Health Organisation?
• If using the World Wide Web, take a look at the URL as certain aspects may inform you where the information has originated. (eg. “edu”, indicates an educational institution, while “gov” indicates a government body).

Objectivity

5. Fifth, you need to evaluate the Objectivity of the information. It is always good to be aware that most information sources have a certain degree of bias. Information that is completely objective is not possible since the information is written by a person or group of people that will interpret the information from their own understanding of it. However, reputable scientists acknowledge any of their biases so that the reader is aware of how they may have affected the scientists views

Always check the objectivity of the information you have gathered. Ways of judging bias in information sources are:

• Extreme viewpoints
• Omissions in the information at hand
• Language that is emotive or derogatory
• Biases not acknowledged by author
• Contradictory viewpoints to other available information sources
• Geographic location - national as opposed to international information

Evaluating Books

It is important to evaluate any information resources that you use for academic writing. Book resources are very important academic resources, and therefore require evaluating.

Points to be aware of when evaluating book resources are:

• Does the title indicate that the information is adequate for your purposes?
• Does the sub title assist you make a decision as to whether the information is adequate for your purposes?
• What is the date of publication? Is the material current or is it older material? It depends on your needs as to whether the date of the information source is important or not.
• Check the subject headings in the library catalogue, to see if there are other useful terms for your assignment.
• A reliable text will also include a table of contents and an index for reference.

Evaluating Journal Articles

It is important to evaluate any information resources that you use for academic writing. Journal articles are very important academic resources, and therefore require evaluating.

Points to be aware of when evaluating journal articles are:

• Whether the content of the journal article is relevant to your assignment
• The date of publication of the journal
• Whether the author is a reliable and authoritative information source
• Accuracy of the information
• Whether the journal is peer reviewed
• Whether the journal is published by a recognised body
• Whether the journal is a refereed / scholarly journal or a popular journal
• Who is the intended audience of the information in the journal

Evaluating materials from the World Wide Web

It is important to evaluate any information or resources that you use for research or academic writing. World Wide Web resources are very important resources, and therefore require evaluating. Generally, you will use the same criteria as you would use for books, journals, and other library media to evaluate the same types of materials on the web. However, you will also need to evaluate pictures, graphs, charts, and other media that you find on the web that are independent of written material.

Points to be aware of when evaluating World Wide Web resources are:

• Accuracy of the document - who wrote the page and has the author included their email or contact details.
• Authority of the document - who published the document?, check the domain of the document, (eg.edu, gov, org, net). Also check whether the author has listed their qualifications, as well as presenting a well researched document that is supported by evidence. Does the author have other publications?
• Objectivity of the document - determine if the information is fact, opinion or propaganda. Be aware of bias in information.
• Currency of the document - check the dates of when the document was produced, updated, and whether the links in the document are up to date. Looking at the publication date or date last updated which can usually be found at the bottom of the web page is a good place to start.
• Coverage of the information - does the information have a national or international focus. Are you limited by fees, browser technology or software requirements?