Until now, we have primarily been focused on how to find books and journal articles through the Library's resources. Ideally, everything you find through the library's tools would be legitimate e.g. peer-reviewed and/or scholarly. That is not the case. Whether you have identified a resource through Google or a scholarly index like ATLA you must critically evaluate every source before you use it.
Iowa State University's library have developed a checklist for evaluating scholarly books and articles. To summarize, the following elements should be examined: (1) author, (2) publisher, (3) peer review, (4) purpose, (5) content, (6) usefulness, (7) accuracy, and (8) currency. My advice: trust your gut!
There are also a number of convenient checklists that have been developed to help you evaluate websites. Two of the most actively used checklists are included below: RADAR and CRITICAL. The incorporation of CRITICAL supports our commitment to decolonizing information literacy and our focus on I-EDIAA (Indigenous, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Accessibility). Both tools provide a list of questions to help you evaluate the information you retrieve from the web.
Option #1 for Evaluating Internet Sources: RADAR
Relevance
- How is this information relevant to your assignment? Does it relate to your research question?
- Consider your audience and compare the information source with a variety of sources.
Authority
- Who is the author?
- What makes this person or organization an authoritative source?
Date
- When was this information published and is the publication date important to you?
Appearance
- Where are they getting their information from?
- Does it have citations and references?
- Are they using reputable sources or explaining how they gathered their data?
Reason for Writing
- The timeliness of the information.
- Is the information biased?
Adapted from Mandalios, J. (2013). RADAR: An approach for helping students evaluate Internet sources. Journal of Information Science, 39(4), 470-478.
Credibility:
- Is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda? Facts can be verified through comparison to several sources. Opinions evolve from the interpretation of facts.
- Are the author's conclusions or facts supported with references?
- Do the authors / sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
Relevance:
- Is the information within the scope of your topic? Refer back to your research question or central goal.M
- Does it offer new perspectives (e.g., historical, political, cultural, social, racial, gender, sexual)
- Does it offer different voices, conflicting viewpoints, or other ways of knowing?
- Please be aware that library collections encompass works that portray offensive perspectives, serving to document them as evidentiary sources and facilitate ongoing critical analysis of the past and present.
Intention
- Why was the source written?
- Was the author's purpose to inform, persuade, or to refute a particular idea or point of view?
- Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?
Timelines
- Is the date of publication appropriate for your topic?
- Is currency important or are historical perspectives needed?
- Does your work need a chronology of events over time?
- Is it important to include seminal works, regardless of date?
I-EDIAA
- Does the source bring an equity lens to the topic?
- Are aspects of I-EDIAA addressed? (Indigeneity, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Accessibility)
- Does the author present multiple viewpoints or is it biased?
- Does the author situate their own positionality? (i.e., their privilege through race, education, income, ability, gender, etc. as a means of framing their research interpretations)
Coverage
- Does the source address your topic in depth, only partially, or is it an broad overview? Different levels can be useful.
- Is the source a useful as a single example or case?
- Does the source add new information or update other sources?
- Can the source be cited to substantiate or refute other resources that you have consulted?
Authority
- Consider the author's background, writings, experience, and positionality.
- There are subject authorities beyond those writing in scholarly journals. For example, Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers are recognized for their expertise.
- Is the author associated with an organization, institution, cultural, or community group?
- Who is the publisher? Does it represent the views of specific groups?
- How is the writing acknowledged by others in the field or community? How do critical reviews rate the work?
- Are some types of references privileged over others? Does the information draw on collective expertise from a diverse group?
- Who benefits or is empowered from this perspective?
Level
- What is the reading and analysis level of the source?
- Does it align with your knowledge of the subject?
- What level of evidence is provided in terms of citations or data?
- Is the resource intended for the general public, scholars, or professionals?
