Evaluating Information

Welcome!

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Welcome to the TP Library online tutorial on Evaluating Information or Deciding What Information to Use for your Assignments.

Finding information using the Library online databases is easy, but remember that you still have to decide on the quality of the information you find.

Just follow this online tutorial to learn how to evaluate or decide on the quality of the information you find. Please feel free to post a comment!

1. Don't Trust Everything You Find

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Not all information is from a reliable or trustworthy source - you must look carefully at everything you find. To help you decide if the information is good enough to use, we suggest you look at six evaluation criteria:

1. Currency - is the information up-to-date?
2. Relevance - it is useful?
3. Adequacy - is there enough information?
4. Reliability - is it believable?
5. Accuracy - is it free from error?
6. Objectivity - is it factual?

(Criteria outline provided by CSAS3 AY08/09)

2. Evaluation Criteria in Detail

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1. Currency
When was the information published? If you need up-to-date information, a book or article published in the 1970's will not be very useful.
When was the page last updated, changed or edited? Websites that have not been changed for years may not be very reliable.
What is the pace of change in the subject? Certain subjects may have a slow pace of change, e.g., some Business theories have not changed since the 1940's. Computer information, however, will change very quickly.
Could there be more up-to-date information available? The latest research may show new theories, e.g., electricity used to be thought of as a cure for baldness. Now we know better!

2. Relevance

Does the information help you complete your project or assignment? Check your topic again!
Is the language too simple, too advanced or just right for your needs? If you can't understand what the author is talking about, perhaps you can find another source.

3. Adequacy

Does the information provide an overview of your topic or does it focus on only part of your topic?
Does the information seem too basic to cover enough of your topic?
Does the source provide enough information on your topic? Or can you see that something has been left out?
Does the information support, add to, or update other sources you have found? Remember that you need to find enough sources to provide a variety of viewpoints.
Is the information from a PRIMARY or SECONDARY source?

4. Reliability

Who is the author? Google him or her if you don't know.
What are the author's credentials?
Does the author have any training or experience?
Are you able to contact the author in some way?
Would the author's ties with the publisher or sponsor result in biased information? e.g. writing about a product if the author is employed by the company that makes that product.
Is there a reference list or bibliography?
Does the information come from a scholarly (journal) or popular (magazine) work?

The Difference Between Journals & Magazines...

Magazines:

popular
author usually a journalist or professional writer, sometimes not even named
often no references
often many colorful images & pictures
short easy-to-understand articles
goal is to entertain & inform
e.g. Chemical Engineering; DestinAsian; Edge; Fortune.

Journals:

scholarly (i.e. containing a serious detailed study of a subject)
author usually an expert
references cited
charts and tables
longer articles with more jargon
goal is scholarly communication
e.g. Asian Studies Review; Journal of Retailing; Learning, Media and Technology; VINE.

5. Accuracy

Are the sources used by the author clearly listed so you can find them and check the facts?
Is it clear who is ultimately responsible for the information? Note: even if a drug company hires a person to write something about a product they sell, the company is still ultimately responsible for that information.
Is the free information free of error? Can errors can be found with the spelling or with the facts?
Does the source support information previously found?

6. Objectivity

Can you see if the information is biased or not? Sometimes the bias can be hidden so you need to be careful.
Does the bias make the information less useful?
Is the language used free of emotion-arousing words and bias?
Is the point of view presented by the information balanced and consistent?
Watch out for opinion and bias, especially in newspaper articles.

3. Easy Exercise to Try Now

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Let us say that your topic is:
" The promotion of sporting culture in Singapore".

Read this article on sports marketing - If you sell it... (Note: access is for TP Library members only) - and think about the following points:

Currency - the article was published in 2000. The topic of marketing is one of those topics with a fairly slow pace of change so this article may be useful.

Relevance - while the topic is sports marketing, it only deals with baseball. Although there may be some similarities with the state of soccer in Singapore, there are probably other articles better suited to your needs.

Adequacy - the article is very short, but there is one good idea that can be used for the topic of promotion - see the last sentence.

Reliability - there is no named author, and the source is a popular magazine (check Google if you don't believe me). This makes it a bit hard to check how reliable the information is.

Accuracy - there is so little information provided that it would be difficult to check for errors other than with the spelling.

Objectivity - there is some bias in that the article refers to baseball as being the favorite" in "the sports marketing universe". Mmm, this may be true in America, but what about the rest of the world?

Conclusion
So, do you use this article for your assignment or not? As the article does make at least one good point, we suggest you see how many other information sources are available before you decide.

That's right - it's up to you