This document discusses evaluating information sources based on relevance, purpose, scope, depth, style, validity, timeliness, authority, and accuracy. It provides guidelines for assessing these criteria in books, articles, websites, and other sources. Key points include checking that a source is relevant to your research topic, understanding the purpose and intended audience, considering the qualifications of authors and publishers, and fact-checking claims made in a source. The document also outlines evaluating different parts of the research process, including the research question, keywords, and selected databases, and how changes to one part may impact other aspects of the process.

1. Evaluation of Sources
Evaluation Criteria for Sources (Chap 5-7)
Evaluation of Research Process (Chapp 8)

2. Evaluating
Sources –
books,
articles,
Internet
Categories of evaluation:
Relevance
Purpose
Scope and Depth
Style
Validity
Timeliness
Authority
Accuracy
See Chapters 5, 6, 7, for evaluation criteria specific to formats

3. Relevance
Examine the book to find out if it does
contain information on your topic that will
help you with your research and answer
your information need.
Yes: you have a relevant information
source.
No: the book or video is not relevant and
should be eliminated from your pool of
potential information resources.

4. Purpose, Scope
and Depth
 Purpose: why was this book written
or this video produced?
 Scope and Depth: how much
information, and how in depth
 Background sources:
 Broad coverage: encyclopedias,
dictionaries, reference sources
 In depth coverage:
 scholarly journals (studies of specific
populations
 Newspapers narrow in scope, as it
focuses on one event.
 Magazines: cover a topic with more
depth; interviews, for general audience

5. Style
 Inform: present information about a
topic without overtly expressing or
supporting a particular point of view.
 Persuade: written and produced to
sell you something
 The information is carefully arranged,
edited, and distorted to tell only the
story the author wants to be told.

6. Style – Popular and
Scholarly Sources
 Source for popular audience will
have a more information style, and
higher entertainment value
 Engaging manner that increases
the number of readers or
audience
 A scholarly book on the same topic
has other scholars or researchers as
its audience.
 Scholarly book should have more
value to your research question
 Less anecdotal personal
observations
http://libguides.lib.rochester.edu/c.php?g=977618&p=70
69981

7. Validity
 Validity is where you evaluate the
truthfulness of the information source.
 Scholarly Journals: peer reviewed by
fellow researchers for validity and
accuracy of results
 Newspapers and magazines: fact
checkers check facts included in news
articles
 Internet: very important to determine
truthfulness of internet sources

8. Timeliness
 Timeliness is the first part and perhaps
easiest part of validity to evaluate.
 If an item is old, it may be less valid
than a new item.
 Timeliness depends on discipline or
area:
 Medicine: needs for current
information
 History: may be able to use older
information. Most current information
may be older

9. Authority
 Example (Chap. 5, p. 80)
 In Figure 5.5, each of the five authors
has written a book with the same title.
 Qualifications of author:
 Reporter, librarian, professor
 How might style and purpose vary
from the book by the librarian versus
the book by the University of Chicago
professor?

10. Authority
 Not only does the institution worked
for lend authority to an item, so does
the publisher of the information.
 In Figure 5.6, we have added
information about the publisher.

11. Authority of
Websites
 Internet Sources: very
important to determine
accuracy
 Website domain
 Sponsoring agency of website
 Individual writer for articles
 Authorship can be difficult to
determine
 Look for corporate author, the
organization, or entity that
published the website.

12. Accuracy
 Fact-check:
 If the author says X , then check other
sources to make sure X is true.
 Example [p. 81]: video about colonizing
Mars
 the summer time, the equatorial average
daytime temperature is a very pleasant
20¦C.
 Cites other sources?
 Support with factual information from
another source?
 Look up cited sources, also known as the
bibliography, to see if they are from
scholarly sources
 qualified authors who are presenting
facts
 reputable publisher, and contains
 current, up-to-date information.

13. Evaluation of Your Research Process
Chapter 8 [p. 123]
 Hone your critical thinking skills and apply them to each aspect of the
research process.
 Critical thinking is a skill that you need to make
good choices in your daily life from which
presidential candidate will get your vote to which
cereal to buy.

14. Chapter 8:
Evaluation of
Research
Process
Figure 8.1 illustrates the four parts of evaluation [p.125]

15. Evaluate
Research
Process
Research is an iterative process. You
need to try a search, evaluate it, and
try it, again.
You need to evaluate each of these
parts of the research process and
remember that these parts limpact
each other.
A change to any one part may
necessitate a change in any or all of
the others.

16. Evaluation
Research
Question
 Consider for revision:
 Keywords
 the search statement
 the database
 does the problem lie with your research
question?
Figure 8.2: Research Question Evaluation: Changes and Effects

17. Keywords
 Use of Boolean operators
 aerofoils AND turbines AND efficiency
 Choice of keywords
 Trial and error
 Subject terms of records you find – are they
relevant?
Figure 8.4: Keyword Evaluation: Changes and Effects

18. Database
Selection
 General Database
 Provides more sources
 Subject Specific Database
 Provides more focused search results
 van gogh AND brushwork
 Relevant results in Art database versus
general database
Figure 8.5: Database Evaluation: Changes and Effects