What are the most important questions to ask when judging the Reliability of a primary source?

Overview

UW Libraries has a whole guide, Savvy Info Consumers: Evaluating Information, which discusses different types of sources and how to approach evaluating their credibility/reliability.

What it means for a source to be credible/reliable can vary depending on the context of its use. Generally, a credible or reliable source is one that experts in your subject domain would agree is valid for your purposes. This can vary, so it is best to use one of the source evaluation methods that best fits your needs. Do remember that credibility is contextual!

It is important to critically evaluate sources because using credible/reliable sources makes you a more informed writer. Think about unreliable sources as pollutants to your credibility, if you include unreliable sources in your work, your work could lose credibility as a result.

Frameworks

There are certain frameworks that information professionals have put together to help people think critically about the information provided. 

Some of the methods that UW Libraries suggest are: 

5 W Questions (5Ws): This method means thinking critically about each of your sources by answering five questions to determine if the source is credible/reliable. The acceptable answers to these questions will vary depending on your needs. The questions are:

• Who is the author? (Authority)
• What is the purpose of the content? (Accuracy)
• Where is the content from? (Publisher)
• Why does the source exist? (Purpose and Objectivity)
• How does this source compare to others? (Determining What’s What)

SMART Check: This method is particularly good at evaluating newspaper sources. Like the 5Ws method it also involves answering critical questions about your source. The criteria are:

• Source: Who or what is the source?
• Motive: Why do they say what they do?
• Authority: Who wrote the story?
• Review: Is there anything included that jumps out as potentially untrue?
• Two-Source Test: How does it compare to another source?

CRAAP Test: This method provides you with a set of criteria that make a source more or less credible. The criteria are:

• Currency: Timeliness of the information
• Relevance: Importance of the information for your needs
• Authority: Source of the information
• Accuracy: Truthfulness and correctness of the information
• Purpose: Reason the information exists

Additional Help

If you would like personalized support from UW Libraries on source evaluation you can

1. Make an appointment with a librarian at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center
2. Ask Us! Chat with a librarian live or email your question

As a student, you will be gathering information from a variety of types of sources for your research projects including books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, specialized databases, and websites. As you examine each source, it is important to evaluate each source to determine the quality of the information provided within it. Common evaluation criteria include: purpose and intended audience, authority and credibility, accuracy and reliability, currency and timeliness, and objectivity or bias. Each of these criteria will be explained in more detail below.

Purpose and intended audience

• What is the purpose of the source? For example:
  • To provide information (e.g., newspaper articles)
  • To persuade or advocate (e.g., editorials or opinion pieces)
  • To entertain (e.g., a viral video)
  • To sell a product or service (e.g., advertising or marketing materials on a company website)
• Who is the intended audience? For example:
  • Scholars and academic researchers with specialized knowledge
  • The general public (without specialized knowledge)
  • Students in high school, college or university (e.g., textbooks for students learning a new subject).

Authority and credibility

• Who is the author?
  • Is it a person?
  • Is it an organization such as a government agency, nonprofit organization, or a corporation?
• What are the qualifications of the author?
  • What is the author's occupation, experience, or educational background?
  • Does the author have any subject matter expertise?
  • Is the author affiliated with an organization such as a university, government agency, nonprofit organization, or a corporation?
• Who is the publisher?
  • For books, is it a university press or a commercial publisher? These types of publishers use editors in order to ensure a quality publication.
  • For journals or magazines, can you tell if it is popular or scholarly in nature? See: Peer-reviewed, popular magazine, or journal?
  • For websites, is it an organizational website, or a personal blog?

Accuracy and reliability

• Is the information well researched?
  • Are there references (e.g., citations, footnotes, or a bibliography) to sources that will provide evidence for the claims made?
  • If the source includes facts or statistical data, can this information be verified in another source?
  • If the data was gathered using original research (such as polling or surveys), what was the method of data collection? Has the author disclosed the validity or reliability of the data?

Currency and timeliness

• When was the information published?
  • For books and articles - you should be able to easily verify the publication date.
  • For websites, try to determine the date the web page was created or updated
• Is current information required? If not, then accurate, yet historical, information may still be acceptable.

Objectivity or bias

• Does the source contain opinions or facts?
• Is the information presented in the source objective (unbiased) or subjective (biased)?
• Does the information promote a political, religious, or social agenda?
• Is advertising content (usually found in business magazines or newspapers) clearly labelled?

In Summary

• Does the source provide you with high-quality information? Is the information useful in answering your questions and meeting your information need?

Adapted from Burkhardt, J.M & MacDonald, M.C. (2010). Teaching information Literacy: 50 standards-based exercises for college students.Chicago: American Library Association.

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