What is this about?
- Does it have the kind of information you need? Look at the title, abstract, subject headings, table of contents, web address or other descriptors.
- If the information is contradictory to what you know, can it be verified? How does that affect your topic?
- Is the work scholarly or popular? Is the research methodology described? Are sources of information cited in text or bibliographies?
- Does it omit important and relevant information, or have an emotional writing style? These are clues into the author's bias.
Who created this?
- Check the preface or introduction. Look for About the Author/About Us links.
- Look at the parts of web addresses to find organizational information.
- Verify authors' qualifications with other sources like their other journal articles and institution web pages where they work.
Where is the information coming from?
- Is it from a scholarly, popular or trade journal? Academic press or government agency?
- Look for affiliated institutions, parent organizations, and funding sources.
- Can you find clues about a web site's creator based on it's URL.
Why was this created?
- Think about whether this was intended to inform, persuade, entertain, instruct, or sell.
- Was it written for scholars, the public, professionals, or students?
- Look for mission statements for whole journals, about us statements, or purpose statements. For web sites, the links and advertising on the page give clues about the intended audience.
When was the information created?
- Is the date of publication or copyright important for the timeliness of the content?
- Is there a more recent edition? When was the site last modified or updated?
- When was the research conducted?
Information taken from the University of Wisconsin - Madison Libraries.