Evaluating Online Sources

1. Evaluating Online Sources Clayton Hunter Michael Mitchell Adam Sheppard Nicole White

2. Credibility Accuracy Reasonableness Support Steps for Finding Reliable Resources (CARS)

3. Credibility • Author’s Credentials • Evidence of Quality Control • Meta-information • Indicators of Lack of Credibility

4. Author’s Credentials • Author's education, training, and/or experience in a field relevant to the information. Look for biographical information, the author's title or position of employment • Author provides contact information (email or snail mail address, phone number) • Organizational authorship from a known and respected organization (corporate, governmental, or non-profit) • Author's reputation or standing among peers. • Author's position (job function, title)

5. Quality Control • Information presented on organizational web sites • On-line journals that use refereeing (peer review) by editors or others • Postings of information taken from books or journals that have a quality control process

6. Meta-information • Meta-information is information about information. • Meta-information can take many forms, but there are two basic types, summary and evaluative This type of meta-information gives us a quick glance at what a work is about and allows us to consider many different sources without having to go through them completely.

7. Indicators of Lack of Credibility • Anonymity • Lack of Quality Control • Negative Meta-information. If all the reviews are critical, be careful. • Bad grammar or misspelled words. Most educated people use grammar fairly well and check their work for spelling errors. An occasional split infinitive or comma in the wrong place is not unusual, but more than two or three spelling or grammar errors is cause for caution, at least. Whether the errors come from carelessness or ignorance, neither puts the information or the writer in a favorable light.

8. Accuracy • Not all of the information to be found on the World Wide Web is accurate and not all web sites, no matter how attractive, are good. Thus evaluating a web site becomes an important activity. When evaluating the accuracy of a web site, consider the following questions:

9. ?’s • Who wrote the pages? • What does the author have to say about the subject? • Does the author have the authority to present this information? • Does the author/publishing organization have anything to gain by presenting this information? • When was the site created and updated? • Where does the site's information come from? • Is the information consistent with other published material on the topic? • Why it the site useful or important? • Can the information be verified in book, periodical or other sources?

10. Also Consider • For a research document, the data that was gathered and an explanation of the research method(s) used to gather and interpret it are included. • The methodology outlined in the document is appropriate to the topic and allows the study to be duplicated for purposes of verification. • The document relies on other sources that are listed in a bibliography or includes links to the documents themselves. • The document names individuals and/or sources that provided non-published data used in the preparation of the study. • The background information that was used can be verified for accuracy.

11. Fact or Opinion • In reading nonfiction, it is important to distinguish between fact and opinion. One can easily draw wrong inferences and conclusions if what is accepted, as fact is in reality only one person's opinion. To test whether or not a statement is a fact, ask these questions:

12. More ?’s • Can it be proved or demonstrated to be true? • Can it be observed in practice or operation? • Can it be verified by witnesses, manuscripts, or documents?

13. Writer’s Authority • This does not mean that opinions should be discounted. On the contrary, sound opinions based upon logic, research and study, and experience are very valuable. However, to be an alert reader, one needs to know where fact ends and opinion begins. • If more information is needed to evaluate a site, consider e-mailing the author of the site for more information. Good web sites will give the name and e-mail address of a contact person somewhere on the site. • ·       Who wrote the page and can you contact him or her? • ·       What is the purpose of the document and why was it produced? • ·       Is this person qualified to write this document? • ·       Make sure author provides e-mail or a contact address/phone number. • ·       Know the distinction between author and Webmaster.

14. Reasonableness • Fairness • Objectivity • Moderateness • Consistency • World View

15. Fairness • -        having balanced reasoned argument not selected or slanted • -        contradicting ideas should be presented accurately, not slanted • -        the tone of the information source should be clam and reasoned • -        angry, hateful, and critical tones show unfair or irrational attacks • - writing that attempts to inflame your feelings to prevent you from thinking clearly is also unfair and manipulative

16. Objectivity a good writer should be able to control his/her biases • be aware that information sources can benefit in some way from the provided information (financially, politically, etc.)

17. Moderateness • moderateness means to test the information against what the world tells us • use your personal knowledge to ask if the information is possible or believable • some truths are moderate and spectacular

18. Consistency • be sure that the information doesn’t contradict itself, these are signs of unreasonableness

19. World View • be aware of the authors world views (religious, political, and economic) or at least be aware of them. Often these views slant the writers stand on subjects. Better to avoid such sources

20. Indicators of lack of reasonableness • -        Intemperate tone or language ("stupid jerks," "shrill cries of my extremist opponents") • -        Over claims ("Thousands of children are murdered every day in the United States.") • -        Sweeping statements of excessive significance ("This is the most important idea ever conceived!") • -        Conflict of Interest ("Welcome to the Old Stogie Tobacco Company Home Page. To read our report, 'Cigarettes Make You Live Longer,' click here." or "The products our competitors make are dangerous and bad for your health.")

21. Support

22. BIBLIOGRAPHY • Can you answer the following questions: • -Where did information come from? • -Are the sources listed? • -How does the writer know this? • -Does the author provide contact information?

23. CORROBORATION • TRIANGULATE FINDINGS • USE ONE TO TEST ANOTHER • FIND ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION TO RECONFIRM WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

24. EXERNAL CONSISTENCY • This test compares what is familiar in the new source with what is familiar in other sources. • Where this source discusses facts or ideas I already know something about, does the source agree or harmonize or does it conflict, exaggerate, or distort?

25. SIGNS OF A LACK OF SUPPORT • The information does not include an identified source. • There is no source documentation when there should be some. • No other sources present the same information or acknowledge that the same information exists.