USMALibAnswers

Evaluating sources is a proactive process focused on judging the credibility of the container before you use the information inside it. You are asking, "Can I trust this source?"

There are different ways to evaluate sources:

• Evaluating them for quality research
• Determining whether they are scholarly, peer-reviewed sources or whether they are from popular sources
• Evaluating whether or not they will be a good fit for your assignment

To find out how reliable a source is, it's helpful to consider the following:

• Author
  • Are they a scholar? Journalist? What are their credentials? Are they obviously biased a certain way? Are they a member of a strongly-leaning group or organization?
• Audience
  • Who was this written for? Students and other scholars? Popular consumption?
• Publisher
  • Who is the institution responsible for the publication of this source, and how credible are they? 
• Purpose
  • Why was this written? To report insight in a particular field? To relay news or entertain?

(Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons, University of Michigan Library)

Watch this video from NSCU libraries for more information about evaluating sources. (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States)