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Evaluating for Credible, Authoritative, Reliable Sources

Context and tips for how to evaluate sources, including web sites, so you can use credible, authoritative, reliable sources

photograph of stacked booksEvaluating for Credible, Authoritative, Reliable Sources

This guide can help you decide whether you should use the information you find during research. This can be a challenging decision to make!

Areas of Evaluation

Before using sources in your academic work, you need to evaluate them. Here are five areas of evaluation to consider when reviewing sources:

  1. Authority
  2. Accuracy
  3. Bias
  4. Currency
  5. Relevancy

These areas of evaluation are discussed in detail in the following tabs.

As you evaluate sources, keep in mind that the credibility, authority and reliability of a source often depends on the context of your research. In other words, it depends on the type of information you are looking for and the reason you are looking for it.

Image Source: "Books, Stack, Book Store" by Eli Francis is in the Public Domain, CC0

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