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Rutgers: University Library Resources and Services
Evaluating |
Why evaluate?
You may be thinking, "I found all this information, and it's on my topic. What else do I need to know?" The answer is, "Quite a lot." As you already know, not all information is equal. If you've ever looked at the headlines on the supermarket tabloids, you know that appearing in print is no guarantee of accuracy. If you consider how often the weather report is wrong, you'll know that the broadcast media are not particularly reliable. Even reputable sources sometimes publish innaccurate reports. Remember the Florida election results?
Not only popular sources require evaluation. Scholarly research is not immune to error, hoaxes, or downright fraud. Publication in a scholarly journal certainly increases the authority of an article, but it does not guarantee its accuracy. Even experts can make mistakes. Evaluation is not just a matter of determining accuracy and reliablity. Ideas may be controvertial, or open to question, without being wrong. Older materials will obviously not reflect discoveries made after they were published. All material, no matter how objective it appears, will contain some bias. Using information sources appropriately requires you to think critically about the information, and place each source in the context of the available knowledge about your topic. Criteria for Evaluation Here are some of the standard criteria that you should use to evaluate information resources.
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