Remember, it is important that you should not believe

everything you read.

Moreover, you should be able to reject or accept

information based on the characteristics of the
information and the source from which the information
was obtained.

Perhaps one of the most important ways of evaluating

information is simply common sense.

If things appear unbelievable, then generally they should

be treated with a pinch of salt.

However, there are other, more concrete, criteria that can

be used in evaluating printed or electronic material.

The following is a list of relevant criteria:

One criterion is whether the publication is a refereed one.
Articles in most scholarly journals go through a rigorous
process of peer evaluation, in which the editor of the
journal sends a manuscript to at least two, but typically
three, other experts in the field.
Only when all referees agree that the manuscript is
worthy of publication will it be published.
Similar processes are applied to books published by
reputable publishers.
Clearly, this means that articles in refereed publications
are more likely to be acceptable.

A related criterion is the level of scholarship of the

publication.
This criterion is especially important in evaluating
printed materials.
One can distinguish between scholarly publications and
those intended for a general audience.
Clearly, the latter are often easier to understand but
may lack a more in-depth analysis.
An important question to ask when evaluating
information according to this criterion is who is the
work's intended audience.

Another criterion relevant to the acceptance or rejection

of information is the degree of specificity or relevance to
the research being undertaken.
For example, newspaper articles are generally intended
for a general audience and may therefore not be
specific enough for one's purposes.
Whether a book or a journal article is relevant can often
be determined by carefully examining the title of the
publication.
For a book, one can often get more information by
reading the preface and the table of contents.
Journal articles often have abstracts, which can be used
to determine the relevance of the article to the
research project being undertaken.

A further relevant criterion is the authority of the author

of the publication.
Many publications include biographical notes on the
author.
Another relevant piece of information is the affiliation
of the author.
Authors associated with reputable organizations (e.g.
reputable universities) are usually more authoritative on
the subject.
Relevant questions to consider here are:

Is the author an expert, scholar, or practitioner in the field?

Has the author written other relevant publications?
Is the author cited by others writing on the subject?
What institution is the author affiliated to?

Another important criterion that can be used in judging

whether to reject or accept a written publication is the
extent to which the author shows familiarity with the
literature.
Clearly, an authoritative publication in the field will
contain references to such publications.
More generally, it is important to determine whether the
publication contains a bibliography.
Also, does the author display knowledge of the various
theories and techniques in the field?
If the author's treatment is controversial, is the author
aware of it and does he or she acknowledge it?

The accuracy of the publication is clearly of great

importance too.
One way of determining the accuracy of a publication is
to compare it with other publications.
For example, are the data presented in the publication
comparable to those in other publications?

Timeliness of information was previously mentioned but

clearly this is extremely relevant in the evaluation of
information.
For example, a book published in 1980 in the area of
Computer Science, or one published in 1925 in Medicine
are likely to contain outdated information.
On the other hand, publications that appeared early in
the century may be extremely relevant for a piece of
historical research.

A final criterion that is worth mentioning is the objectivity

of the information.
It is important to note that the fact that a publication
contains subjective information does not necessarily
mean that it needs to be rejected.
Whether to reject it depends on the research topic.
For example, a research project that sets out to discuss
and compare different views on some current issues, say
the current telecommunications regulatory framework,
must rely on subjective publications.
However, a research project that sets out to answer an
empirical scientific question should rely primarily on
objective information.

Here's a summary of the criteria that should be used to

analyze information for validity.
Criteria
Bias

Accuracy

Cultural context
Completeness

Currency of information

Questions to consider
Does the source of the information favours a particular
point?
Is the source objective or subjective?
Is the information correct as presented?
Is it truthful?
Is it without typographical and grammatical errors?
Is the information generalized or is it specific to a region,
country, ethnic group etc.?
Is the information complete (i.e. it does not lack vital pieces
of information)?
Is it understandable?
How current is the information?

Many of the considerations discussed earlier must be

applied to information obtained from the Internet as well.
However, because of the ease with which one can publish
information on the Internet, the Internet poses a number
of additional challenges.
Here's a list of some of the additional considerations that
one may wish to take into account when evaluating
information from the Internet.

Earlier we discussed an important criterion, whether the

publication had been refereed.
Information on the Internet is not refereed in the same
way as other publications.
Nevertheless, one can gather some information about
the publishing body.
First, it is important that you be able to interpret how
to decode a URL.
The URL will tell whether the Web page was part of the
pages hosted by an academic organization, a
commercial organization, or hosted by a private
individual.

Some organizations only allow their members to publish

Web pages after some form of refereeing by the
organization itself.
If an organization has such a policy, any Web page will
contain a reference to it.
Also, many organizations appoint so-called Webmasters.
If one can contact a Webmaster directly from a page,
then the page has probably obtained some sort of
approval from the organization.

Currency was another criterion discussed earlier.

Again, it is usually important to determine the last date
on which the page was updated.
Good Web pages tend to contain the name of the author,
together with the copyright sign as well as an indication
of the date on which the page was last updated.

A final criterion that is useful in determining whether to

accept or reject a piece of information from the Internet
is the links to and from the page.
If the page contains links to other pages that one
already has decided to accept as reliable, then the
author of the page shows a good understanding of the
literature.
In a sense, this is the equivalent of a list of references
of an article in the printed media.
However, possibly even more important are links to the
page from other pages that have already been judged to
be reliable.
After all, an authoritative author is unlikely to
undermine his or her authority by including links to
unreliable pages.