How to Assess the Credibility of Information Sources (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-19 22:11

We are always surrounded by a lot of information. It is not easy for us to find reliable sources of information. The ability to assess the credibility of information is an important skill to use in school, work, and everyday life. With so many campaigns, controversies, and blogging activities going on, how can you judge a source of information?

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Method 1 of 2: Assessing Resources for Academic Projects

Step 1. Understand academic standards

Scientific writers must meet higher standards than ordinary writers, and even higher than journalists. Therefore, you should also set high standards for the sources of information you seek.

• Citing information from unreliable sources will make academics doubt all of your arguments because the sources you choose have a low level of integrity.
• Academics have a strong memory. If you cite unreliable sources too often, your reputation will be damaged.

Step 2. Find out the academic reputation of the author of the information

Within each field, there are a handful of people who are considered experts in their field. For example, in literary theory, there are Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucalt whose work provides the foundation for the field. By citing them, you will be able to establish your credibility as an academic in the field of literature.

• This does not mean that the work of academics who are not yet well known cannot be trusted. Sometimes, citing academics whose work contradicts popular opinion can also give you a better argument for finding common threads between different opinions.
• In the academic field, arguments of this kind are sometimes more valued than arguments quoted from the works of well-known academics. This is because citing contradictory arguments also shows that you have the ability to question things that are commonly accepted and push the boundaries of your field of knowledge even further.
• Find out if there are credibility scandals that have also happened to well-known academics. For example, the reputation and credibility of critical theorist Slavoj ižek has been significantly damaged since the plagiarism accusations leveled against him in 2014.

Step 3. Focus on peer-reviewed academic sources

You should make these resources the first stop on an academic project. Their credibility is very high, and you can always feel safe quoting them. There are two elements to this label: “academic” and “peer-reviewed.”

• Academic information sources are written by experts in a particular field of science for other experts in the same field of science. The purpose of writing is to share information with the assumption that the readers have the same high level of knowledge. This is because academic information resources are written specifically for people who have a professional interest in technical information relevant to their specialization.
• Articles that have been peer-reviewed are not only written by experts, but are also read and evaluated by a panel of partners, or other experts in the field. This panel of experts determines whether the sources used in an article are reliable sources, whether the methods used are fully scientific, and provide a professional opinion on whether the article meets the standards of academic integrity. After passing through all of that, then an article will be published in an academic journal that applies peer review.
• Almost all peer-reviewed journals require an additional subscription fee. However, if you have an active.edu email account from a university where you study or work, you can use your campus library subscription to access the journal's database.
• Using your library's database search engine, use advanced search to limit your search to peer-reviewed sources.

Step 4. Stay alert on all internet sites

If you use other online sources other than academic databases, you should be aware that anyone can publish their thoughts on the internet today, regardless of the content of those opinions.

• As a general rule, all.gov sites have high credibility because they share the burden of government institutions behind their names.
• Sometimes, sites whose names end in.com and.org have good credibility, but sometimes they don't. In this case, you should look at the institution or organization that produced the information. A private individual does not have the credibility required for an academic work; however, a large and well-known organization such as the American Medical Association or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the necessary credibility.
• There are several large and well-known organizations that are also known to still have certain biases. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) will only provide information that supports their views, while the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services can provide the same information without bias.
• Sites that go by the.edu name also fall into the “sometimes trustworthy” category. Often, faculty members create course sites that include information about each class they teach. These sites may contain lecture materials and bibliographic interpretations. While the faculty of a university may be considered trustworthy, this information has not been published through the peer review we discussed earlier. Therefore, you should be more careful in using it.
• If at all possible, seek the same information from peer-reviewed sources, instead of using a professor's personal.edu site.

Step 5. Avoid self-published material

If a writer can't convince a publication to accommodate their ideas, it's likely because their ideas don't make much sense. Never quote an author who published their own work.

Step 6. Distinguish between academic and non-academic books

If an author's manuscript is successfully accepted for publication, it means that someone has considered their work worthy of discussion. However, there are important and significant differences between books published for academic and non-academic purposes.

• Step 7. Avoid using textbooks other than to provide background information

  Textbooks are excellent teaching aids; the books condense technical information into language that is easy to understand for students who are learning the material for the first time. However, they only provide information that is accepted as general consensus in a field. Therefore, you should not rely too much on information that is already very clear (to academics in a particular field) to create good support for your academic argument.

  Use information from a textbook only as the background information needed to build the foundation for your more innovative argument

  

  Step 8. Also consider the timestamp of a source

  Science is constantly evolving, and information that was previously thought to be highly penetrative can be proven wrong or rendered obsolete in just a few years, or even months. Always check the publication date of a source before making a decision about whether it is a reliable source of information for your project.

  For example, in the 1960s, most linguists believed that African American Vernacular English was a flawed form of American English. They believe this because they perceive a deficiency in the cognitive abilities of African Americans. By the 1980s and 1990s, most linguists had accepted African American Vernacular English as a distinct dialect variation of American English with its own spelling, grammar, structure, and diction patterns. Whole thinking has changed completely in just a few decades

  

  Step 9. Use unacceptable sources and methods in an acceptable way

  So far, we have discussed many types of sources that are unacceptable in academic work: websites, non-academic books, etc. However, there are ways you can use these sources without citing them.

  • Students are always told to “Never use Wikipedia.” This is true; You shouldn't cite Wikipedia for a variety of reasons: the articles are written anonymously, so you can't tell the credibility of the author, and the articles are constantly being updated, so the source is unstable.
  • However, if you find information that you find useful, it can be cited using footnotes that are more reliable. If the cited source meets other credibility standards, read the source and cite it. Use Wikipedia as a starting point that can point you towards better sources.
  • Do the same for other sites that do not have high standards of academic integrity.
  • If you can't get information from an untrustworthy source on academic sources, then that's a sign that the source of the information is really untrustworthy, and that you shouldn't include it in your argument.

  

  Step 10. Look for other opinions

  If you are part of a Community Campus-as a student, faculty, staff, or alumni-check the English department to see if you have access to the university's writing studio. The staff in the writing studio will be able to give you professional opinions about the credibility of a source. If you are a student, point to a source you questioned a professor and ask for his opinion in evaluating it.

  Always seek other people's opinions before the deadline of your project. If one or more of your sources is problematic, you will be able to remove portions based on that source from your work. Look for other new sources

  Method 2 of 2: Assessing Sources of Information in Daily Life

  

  Step 1. Assess the professionalism of a production

  In general, the more time and money invested in creating and publishing material, the more likely it is that the information contained in it can be trusted. A poorly designed site, or a flyer, or a site filled with advertisements, is often not a sign that an individual or organization behind the information is investing in maintaining their reputation.

  • Look for internet sites and print sources that have a good, professional appearance.
  • This does not mean that all attractively packaged information can be trusted. Templates for well-designed websites are inexpensive, and can be obtained easily.

  

  Step 2. Research the authors

  A source has more credibility if it is written by someone who has a degree or qualification in the field in question. If no author or organization is named, a source should not be considered as highly credible. However, if the author presents original work, judge the content of their ideas, not their qualifications. Qualifications do not always guarantee innovation, and the history of science has told us that great advances in science have often come from outsiders, not well-known parties. Some of the questions you should ask about the author include:

  • Where does the writer work?
  • If the author is affiliated with a reputable organization or institution, what are the organization's values and goals? Does the organization benefit financially from promoting their views?
  • What is the author's educational background?
  • What other works has the author published?
  • What experience did the author have? Is he an innovator, follower, or promoter of the status quo?
  • Has the author ever been cited as a source by academics or other experts in the field?
  • With regard to anonymous authors, you can see who published a website via https://whois.domaintools.com. This site will tell you who registered a domain and when, how many other domains that person owns, an email address that can be used to contact that person or organization, and a mailing address.

  

  Step 3. Check the issue date

  Find out the date of publication or revision of your source. In some fields of science, such as the natural sciences, having up-to-date sources of information is very important. However, in other fields, such as the social sciences, it is important to use older material. It's also possible that you found the source information in an old version, and a new, updated resource has been published. Check the academic database for academic sources of information (for an online bookstore or other popular sources) to see if the latest version is available. If you can find one, you can feel more confident about the source-the more prints or editions there are, the more reliable the information will be.

  

  Step 4. Check the publisher

  The institution that holds the information can tell you a lot about the credibility of the information. For example, you may be more comfortable trusting information found in The New York Times or The Washington Post-two newspapers with a proven track record of journalistic integrity and public recall of past wrongdoings-than information discovered. from sources such as Infowars which, despite having a large readership, frequently publish information that is clearly untrue and misleading.

  

  Step 5. Determine the intended audience

  Read the document in question to find out the style, depth, and breadth of knowledge in it before absorbing information from it. Do these three elements qualify for your project?[2] Using sources that are too specialized and too technical for your project can lead to misinterpreting the information contained therein. It can hurt your credibility just as badly as if you used untrustworthy information.

  

  Step 6. Check the reviews

  Use resources such as the Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, and Periodical Abstracts to determine how, and why, others have criticized a source. If there is significant controversy about the validity of the source, you should avoid using it, or examine it more deeply, this time from a more skeptical point of view.

  

  Step 7. Evaluate the source of the source

  Citation of reliable sources is a sign of credibility. However, sometimes, we also have to check these other sources to ensure their credibility.

  

  Step 8. Identify any bias

  If the author of a source is known to have an emotional or financial connection to a field, that source may not necessarily represent all of the views. Sometimes, research is needed to determine the relationship that determines the possibility of bias. Search the author and the publishing house to see if they have been accused of biased work in the past.

  • Recognize the wording that indicates judgment. Conclusions describing something as “good or bad” or “right or wrong” should be critically examined. It is far better to compare something to an objective standard than to label it with words that represent abstract concepts-for example, “…this and other illegal acts…” is more acceptable than “…this and other illegal acts.” another cruel…”
  • The first words describe an action from a legal point of view (a fairly objective source), while the following words judge the action based on the author's own beliefs about the definition of a violent act.

  

  Step 9. Evaluate consistency

  Sources applying different standards to things that are compatible or inconsistent with them are suspect. If your source praises a politician for “changing himself to meet the needs of his constituencies” but then criticizes the opposing politician for “changing himself because of the polls,” chances are that the source is biased.

  

  Step 10. Investigate the financial sources, or funding, of a sponsored study

  Find out the source of funding; find out if they could have some influence on the research. Some funding sources can direct the form of information produced to align with their own agendas.

  For example, the BMJ (formerly known as the British Medical Journal) rejected all tobacco research funded by tobacco companies since 2013 because they determined that the special interests of the funders would lead to biased and unreliable conclusions.

  Suggestion

  • If a source does not pass the instructions above, it does not mean that the information contained in it is false. It just shows that the source is less reliable.
  • The more radical an idea is given in a source (compared to other sources in the same field, you should examine it more carefully as well. Don't completely marginalize it. Gregor Mendel's work has only been cited three times, criticized, and not ignored for 35 years before his discoveries in the field of genetics were recognized by science.