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As you begin your research you will probably find lots of information from many types of sources. When you are in college and in most professional settings after college you will be expected to use high-quality sources of information for your work. As you gather information for your research projects, you'll find many sources in many formats such as books, articles from databases, Web documents, interviews, videos, and more.
For in-depth help evaluating sources, visit our Evaluating Sources guide. However in brief, here are five criteria you should use to evaluate the sources you find:
Does it answer your question or contribute to your research?
When considering the relevancy of a source, there are several things to ask yourself:
Is the content presented current enough for your project?
When considering the currency of a source, ask yourself:
Is the information provided correct?
When considering accuracy, ask yourself the following questions:
Does the author have expertise on the topic about which he/she is writing?
When considering authoritativeness, ask yourself:
Is there bias or a slant given to the information provided?
When considering the objectiveness of a source, ask yourself the following questions:
Note: It's okay to use information from sources that contain strong arguments or opinions, but it's always a good idea to acknowledge the author's view.
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