Evaluating the Source Descriptive Transcript
When visual content is read or explained in audio, it is not reproduced in the visual column below.
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| Have you ever run into information on the web that made you think twice? Anyone can create and post content online without any reviews for accuracy or objectivity. So knowing how to quickly and effectively figure out if a website is trustworthy is a critical skill in life and at school. | How to evaluate websites: Evaluating the source title slide |
| If you encounter an unknown website, it can be difficult to know if the information is trustworthy. The most efficient way to evaluate a web source is by leaving the site and discovering what other sites are saying about it. This is the process that professional fact checkers follow. Like fact checkers, we want to start by going outside the website to evaluate the source, asking questions like who published it? and why? Then if the source is credible, we can move on to evaluating the content of the website, the what, when and how, to decide if it makes sense to use the information in our work. | Diagram showing evaluation steps in order. Go outside the website: Evaluate the SOURCE (Who published it? Why?). If the source is credible, evaluate the website CONTENT (What, When, How). |
| When we talk about evaluating a source, what are we looking for? First, Who? Who was responsible for publishing and maintaining the site? It could be a scholarly organization, a professor, a government agency, news outlet, corporation, independent blogger. Also, what are their credentials or expertise? Look for the background of the author or the source of funding for the site. Next, consider why the information was published or posted. Is the purpose to present research, to give an opinion, or to persuade someone to a point of view? Is there a call to action, for example, to donate money, vote for something, buy a product? These questions can help you identify potential bias or unreliability in web sources. |
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| For example, let's say I'm working on a physics project and found this visual explanation of Faraday's law. But I'm not familiar with the website called HyperPhysics, and I'm not sure if I could trust it. I would start by figuring out who is providing this content. | HyperPhysics page on Faraday’s Law. |
| The site homepage tells me the copyright is held by someone called C.R. Nave, and the site is hosted by Georgia State University. | HyperPhysics Homepage. |
| So I can search online for C.R. Nave on the web to see what else I can learn about them. My search results include a reference for C.R. Nave and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State, HyperPhysics, which is the website we're evaluating, a Wikipedia page about the HyperPhysics website, a book review mentioning Physics for the Health Sciences, a textbook coauthored by C.R. Nave. | Google search results for C. R. Nave. Full screen is shown, then individual results are highlighted as they are listed. |
| The review is published in the American Journal of Physics, which I recognize as a reputable, professional journal. | Physics for the Health Sciences review on American Journal of Physics website. |
| Let's check out the Wikipedia page to see what else we can learn. The Wikipedia page describes it as an educational website, which tells us something about why it was created. That also confirms that the site is hosted by Georgia State University and Dr. Rod Nave, the author, is a faculty member there. That said, since Wikipedia is crowdsourced, it's always a good idea to check the references at the bottom of the Wikipedia page to make sure the information is trustworthy. We can scan the list for sources we already know and trust, like IEEE, which is a professional engineering association, the New York Times and a public television website. We can also follow any of these links. | HyperPhysics Wikipedia summary and references. |
| For example, the fourth source on this list is a faculty listing for Georgia State University confirming Nave's affiliation. | Georgia State University Physics and Astronomy Faculty List including Carl Rod Nave’s contact information. Nave is listed under Emeritus Faculty as “author of Hyperphysics”. |
| In summary, by searching outside of the HyperPhysics website for information about the WHO and the WHY, we were quickly able to determine that this source was credible. Next, we would move on to evaluating the content, the what, the when and the how. | Diagram showing evaluation steps in order. Go outside the website: Evaluate the SOURCE (Who published it? Why?). If the source is credible, evaluate the website CONTENT (What, When, How). |
| However, not all resources are as clear as this example. So what should you look for? First, pay attention to the language that outside sources used to describe your website and its authors. For example, your source might be described as a trusted news provider, a leading manufacturer, a respected professor or researcher, or a well-established professional association. In short, if your source is consistently described by other sources as having a strong reputation, it is likely to be reliable. There are also some red flags that could signal that your source is biased or not credible. For example, inconsistent descriptions of your source or a controversy around it, a financial or political interest in the information being provided. For example, if it comes from a lobbying organization or marketing agency, or if it's not clear what person or group is responsible for the source. If you discover any of these red flags, you should probably look for another, more reliable source. | |
| You may be thinking: How do I know which of the outside sources are trustworthy? How do I know if IEEE or 60 Minutes are credible? As you learn more about your field, you will get to know which authors, organizations and sources are trustworthy. In the meantime, you may need to do a little additional research. Check for references, especially on Wikipedia pages. To find them, scroll to the bottom of the page, as we did in the HyperPhysics example. Scan the results for sources you recognize. That strategy works well for web search results, too. Don't rely on the first few results. You can scan more of the list to see if there are sources or other names you recognize. You can also ask your professor or your subject librarian for help. | |
| Need help? Ask a librarian at library.northeastern.edu/ask | Closing Slide: Ask a Librarian library.northeastern.edu/ask |
Evaluating the content Descriptive Transcript
When visual content is read or explained in audio, it is not reproduced in the visual column below.
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| The second step in evaluating a website is evaluating the content on that site. | How to evaluate websites: evaluating the content Title Slide |
| In the first part of this tutorial, we learned to start evaluating a web source by going outside the site to evaluate who published the content and why. If you do that and determine the source is not credible, then you can move on to searching for another source without having wasted too much time. But if you learn that the source is credible, you can return to your website to examine the content and ask the what, when and how of the information. | Diagram showing evaluation steps in order. Go outside the website: Evaluate the SOURCE (Who published it? Why?). If the source is credible, evaluate the website CONTENT (What, When, How). |
| To evaluate the content, you can ask: What? Is the topic of the website relevant to your work and complete in taking all dimensions of a topic into account? When? Is that information recent and being kept up to date? How is the information presented? Is the language objective? Are the authors transparent about how they collected and analyzed the information? For example, do they list their sources or offer to provide raw data? |
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| For example, in the HyperPhysics example we looked at in the first part of this tutorial, we would start with the what. What content is included in the site and is it relevant to our topic? The title and description of the HyperPhysics page tell us if the content is relevant and in-depth enough for our purpose. Next, how? How is the content presented? Is it explained objectively with citations? HyperPhysics uses objective language and often shows equations or proofs. The author also offers citations and links to credible sources. And finally, when? When was the content published? Is the content current? HyperPhysics doesn't provide any information about when this page was updated and the layout looks dated. How important currency is depends on the content and how you're using it. In this example, it's fairly safe to use a potentially older source because we're citing a law of physics which is not going to change over time. In contrast, if the information is about something more current like the state of climate change this year, it would be much more important to make sure you're using up to date sources. As you can see, deciding whether or not to use a source won't always be straightforward. If you're not sure, it's usually better to find a more credible source. For example, Faraday's Law is explained in many physics textbooks, which you can easily find in E-format in the library catalog. | HyperPhysics page on Faraday’s Law, HyperPhysics references page. |
| Similarly, it's important to consider when it's appropriate to use different types of information. Even biased information can be useful depending on your project and goals. For example, The Birds Aren't Real website argues that birds are actually drones created by the government to spy on us. As a spoof conspiracy website, it would not be credible for biology or zoology research, but if we were writing a paper about cultural or social topics like conspiracy theories, online performance art or gen-z activism, this site might be an interesting example for our research. | Birds Aren’t Real Website |
| In summary, when you're evaluating a website, if you want to do it efficiently, first, look at what outside sources are saying about that site. You'll need to search online for information about the source of the website, who's responsible for it and why they published it. If the results of this search indicate that the source is credible, you can then move on to evaluating the content of the site. The what, the how and the when. Because this is a two part process, make sure that you're building in time to evaluate your sources carefully. You'll become more confident as you do this more often and as you read and learn more about your field of study. And remember, it's always a good idea to ask for advice and help with using websites appropriately. | |
| Need help? Ask a librarian at library.northeastern.edu/ask | Closing Slide: Ask a Librarian library.northeastern.edu/ask |