Whenever we find a source, whether through Google or a library database, we always want to evaluate it to determine if we can use it for our research paper or project. Some of the things we want to consider are:
- Relevancy: Is it related to your research question? Does it fit in with the assignment requirements - for example, if you need peer-reviewed sources, is it peer-reviewed?
- Credibility: Who are the authors? How do you know they are qualified to write about this topic? Who is the publisher? If this is a website, how do you know who wrote and published it?
- Currency: When was this published? Is that current enough for your research?
- Bias: How is this piece biased? Note that all sources will be biased in some way, so it is more important to recognize how much bias a source has, and what kind of bias.
