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Evaluating Sources

5.2 In Summary

Another way to think about evaluation of sources is to ask the 5W questions:
  • What type of document is it?
  • Who created it?
  • Why was the material published?
  • When was it published?
  • Where was the resource published?
  • How was the information gathered and presented?

Locating sources for your literature review by using discovery layers, library catalogs, databases, search engines, and other search platforms may take a great deal of time and effort. Does everything you found and retrieved have value or worth to you as you write your own literature review? If the resource has not met the criteria above and you can't justify its place in your literature review, it doesn't deserve to be mentioned in your work. Include high-quality materials that are current, accurate, credible, and most importantly relevant to your research question, hypothesis, or topic.


Practice


Evaluate a Website

Watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBnlIA4x1Xk

Using a search engine like Google, do a quick search for a topic that interests you. Select a website from your list of results and evaluate it using the elements of website evaluation listed earlier in this chapter.

  • How did you find the website?
  • What is the domain name (the URL) of the site?
  • What can you learn about the author/s of the site?
  • When was the site last updated?
  • Is it accurate based on what you know about the topic?
  • Are there references?
  • Do you notice any bias?
  • Is the site functional? (re links working? Or do they lead to non-functional pages?)


Evaluate a Book

Select a subject specific book or ebook that you can access quickly and evaluate it based on the ASAP criteria.

  • Author
  • Sources
  • Age
  • Publisher


Evaluate an Article

You can practice evaluation using the attached articles. You don't need to spend a lot of time with the article, but see if you can identify each of the elements of evaluation. Remember the elements of evaluation for articles are:

  • Authority/Credibility or Study Design for Nursing
  • Accuracy
  • Reliability/Objectivity
  • Relevance
  • Currency
  • Scope and Purpose

For Education: Quality standards in e-learning: A matrix of analysis.

For Nursing: Beliefs and attitudes towards participating in genetic research.