Author/ Authority
•Who wrote this?
•One author? Multiple? A government agency?
•Are they an expert?
-Do they have their masters?
-Do they have a PHD?
-Are they a hobbyist?
-Respectable organization?
Date/Currency
How current is the information?
•Is it recent enough for the topic you are researching?
•5-10 year range.
•Some subjects research ages faster than others.
- Health and Medicine
- Business
- Technology
Intended Audience
•General Public
-Newspaper
-Magazines
•Researchers/Specialist
-Scholarly Journal
-Trade article
•Do you need prior knowledge on the subject?
•What age group was this source wirtten for?
Evidence
- Is this information accurate?
- if you feel wary about a source google it. Find other coverage that better suits your needs — more trusted, more in-depth, or maybe just more varied. And compare what they have to say.
- If there are other links, are they also complete and accurate? Do any of them lead to dead links, or a 404 error?
- Does the site appear to be carefully edited or are there typing errors.
- Are there citations? Do they backup the claim
Bias
•Being in favor for or against one thing, person, or group.
•What is the authors intent?
•Does the author present objective arguments or make it clear when he/she is expressing an opinion.
Looking for Bias
•If it is a personal website or blog, does it express personal opinions?
•Are other points of views explored or expressed?
•Large amount of advertisements and pop-ups.
Lack of citations