Evaluating information is about deciding whether we trust the source in front of us and the claims (statements) it makes. We make decisions about the information we see, hear and read all the time. Have you ever:
These are all examples of evaluating information.
Using the wrong information can have negative consequences.
These consequences can be small - you have to return the clothes you bought. Or they could be big - you persuade your employer to invest in a poor quality product based on inaccurate information.
Now that we find most of our information online there are more issues to deal with:
Spotting these may be harder than you think! Anyone can create a professional-looking webpage even if they aren't an expert in the subject they are talking about.
At university, it's also important to think about whether the information is suitable to include in an academic assignment.
If you use low-quality information that doesn't fit the purpose of your assignment, you might receive a lower mark.
There are a number of models and methods we can use to help us evaluate information.
For most resource types, you can use the 3 Rs:
For online resources such as webpages, newspaper articles and blogs we'd recommend the SIFT method:
We've explained both of these in more detail below.
There are many ways of evaluating information - you can use whatever works best for you.
Think about:
It can be tempting to add in all the interesting papers you find when searching, but if they aren't related to your question they won't help your work.
Planning your search before you start will help you to decide if something is relevant.
Think about:
Some subject areas move more quickly than others. If something claims to be the latest research on a topic and it's 25 years old, you may want to see if there is more recent information.
If you can't find out when the information was created, think carefully about whether you want to use it.
Think about:
Depending on the type of information you have, it could be written by a subject expert or someone with no experience in the topic. To find out about them, you need to go beyond the initial source - take some time to Google the person or organisation if you haven't heard of them.
Information is created for different reasons - to inform, to educate, to advance a certain opinion, or to sell a product or service. Be mindful that people will not always state why they have created this information.
StopBefore you do anything with a source, stop and think about what you're looking at. Do you recognise the website or creator of the source? If you don't know them, move on to the next step. Don't immediately use or share the first thing you find.
Think briefly about the following:
For example, if you find a report by the Scottish Government on the official scot.gov website, you can assume it's reliable as it is an authoritative (trusted) source. If you find a website by an organisation you don't recognise with comments about hospital waiting times, you need to investigate further before you use it.
Taking the time to stop and think these things through will help you to avoid using low-quality information that does not fit your purpose.
Investigate the sourceFirst, you need to identify the type of source you are looking at. If you're not sure, check our section on information sources and consider whether it is suitable for your purpose.
To investigate if something is true you must go beyond the initial source - it won't tell you if it's unreliable.
Who wrote or created it?
This could be an individual, group, or organisation. Try to answer the questions below:
Individuals:
Groups and Organisations:
Don't rely on what people say about themselves. Open a different page and search for them to find out more. If someone claims to be a university professor their name and role are likely to be listed on that university's website.
If it's not clear who created the information it will be difficult to check how well they are qualified!
Find other coverageDon't just click the first or second result from a Google search. Have a quick look at the URLs and the short description underneath each of the results on the first page before you choose the ones you think best match your needs. Sometimes the best results are not even on the first page and you might want to go further!
If you are unsure about the reliability or accuracy of a source, check if you can find other coverage of the topic that confirms or supports the claims being made. You don't have to agree with the claim(s) being made - sometimes it is important to recognise and acknowledge different points of view on a topic.
Check out some tips below:
News stories
Images
Trace to the original contextIt's very easy to share information online without the original context. Think about stories that go viral on social media or in the news – the story changes slightly as it is shared again and again, and over time information is exaggerated or left out.
Most news stories or blogs aren’t the original sources of a claim – they are reporting (or rereporting) what they have heard or been told. You might hear dramatic statistics or percentages that don’t make sense when you hear the full context.
If the information you are looking at is using quotes, statistics, data, or claims from elsewhere you should trace the original context. A good source will normally do at least one of the following:
Be very wary of sources that don't do this!
When you find the original, consider using that as your source instead.
The SIFT method was created by Michael Caulfield. All SIFT information on this page was adapted from his materials by librarians at The Sir Alex Ferguson Library at GCU with a CC BY 4.0 license. Original SIFT course materials exist at https://checkpleasecc.notion.site/Check-Please-Starter-Course-ae34d043575e42828dc2964437ea4eed.