Critical Thinking: Finding + Evaluating the Right Information Online: Test It Out

Click this link or the image below to be brought to a simple but comprehensive quiz about all the topics covered in this Library help guide. 

If you ask yourself the questions below when looking at a source, you will make sure you have good-quality, appropriate sources, and will make sure you don't lose marks in your assignment. 

WHAT does the material contain? (accuracy & coverage)

Reliability: To which extent is the information credible and accurate? To evaluate the reliability, your own experience and knowledge, as well as the source's reputation, plays an important role. Does the source have fact-checkers or editors?

Relevance: How relevant and/or useful is the material for your needs? Which topics are covered, and to what depth?

References: Which other sources have been cited/referenced?

Scholarly: Is it a scholarly text or popular science?

Target audience: Who is the intended audience (scholars, school children, the general public, etc.)?

WHO is communicating the information? (authority)

Author: Is the author well known in their field of research? Does the author have academic legitimacy? Has the author been published before? Is there any way to contact the author? In short - what are the author's qualifications for writing on the subject?

Publisher: Who is responsible for the information - a company, an agency,  an organization or an individual? Any contact information? Serious publishers often clearly express who they are and what they do. How reputable is the publisher? 

WHY was the material published? (objectivity)

Purpose: What is the purpose of the material or document? Inform, present research, disseminate views, entertain, sway the opinion of the audience, etc.? Is the information presented with a minimum of bias?

WHEN was the material produced or written? (currency)

Up to date: When was the source written? Is the publication or web page dated? Updated? If the date is included it may have various meanings: date first created, date placed on the web or date last revised.

Source: Lund University

Imagine you are researching the topic "The effects of regular coffee consumption on long-term health in adults."

Have a look at this article: Coffee A–Z: A Guide to the History, Types, Benefits, and Risks of the Buzzy Drink

Considering what you have learned about evaluating your sources, do you think this article is suitable to include as a source in your assignment?

Consider things like who wrote it, when it was written, who was it written for, where did the author get their information from?

Taking all this into account, you should determine that the article isn't appropriate for academic work:

Currency: The article was updated last year, but it often makes its point on decades-old research. 

Relevancy: The article relates to our research topic, but is written for a general, rather than an academic audience and is not presented in an academic style. 

Authority: The website is run by experienced health journalists supported by healthcare professionals, but the author of the article is not herself a health expert.

Accuracy: The article has gone through an internal 'review' process and the organisation subscribe to a set of professional information standards. But there is no original data, and the article's references are mixed in terms of their own academic quality. 

Purpose: The author appears genuine in their intention to inform the public of the benefits and risks of coffee drinking, but the website itself is a business trying to keep readers on their website and generate advertising revenue. 

Therefore, we can say that this article does give you some insight into the research topic, it cannot be described as a scholarly source. When you find a source like this, you don't have to ignore it. Instead, note what the key points they are making are, and look for proper scholarly sources about them. You can even go the citations in the article and get the information from the journal source. 

Source: University of Exeter

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