Library & Information Skills (Natural Sciences):4. Evaluation

Vashti Zarach, Academic Support Librarian. CC BY-NC 3.0.

There are a huge range of information sources available for your research, but you must always evaluate whether they are reliable, accurate, trustworthy and of good quality.

1.Questioning sources2.Wikipedia3.Skimming source lists4.Evaluating5.Contact details

Contents

This infographic from UK newspaper The Guardian shows that ¾ of the people at a popular music festival voted for the Conservative party in the General Election:

1. Questioning sources

This suggests misleadingly that most Glastonbury goers have certain political preferences, when in fact the festival audience is very broad.

“The graphic, which at first glance appeared to be from UK newspaper The Guardian, was actually the creation of a 25-year-old Irishman, who tweets as @PrayForPatrick.”

(M. Wright. 2015. How a fake Guardian graphic went from one tweet to fooling the paper’s own writers. TNW News. http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2015/06/29/too-much-of-a-tall-s-tory/

Questioning sources

Just because a source may look reputable, does not mean it is always reliable. Reading widely and knowing your subject area well can assist you to notice when information and facts seem to be suspect.

Additionally, if you are suspicious about a source’s trustworthiness, whether it be an image, a graph, an article, or other source, do some background research on the source, author or information.

Just like many of the skills you gain at university, learning to be wary and critical about information and facts is a very useful skill to apply to your wider life, e.g. memes (images with words on) on social media can also be false or misleading.

Questioning sources

Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia which many people use to look up information. It can be a useful starting point for a new topic, but is not a source lecturers generally like to see cited in a reference list.

Because Wikipedia is a freely editable online site, it gains from the expertise of many people across the world, but is also vulnerable to pranks and may contain misleading or false information.

2. Wikipedia

Here is a Wikipedia article about marine biologist Maria Portaro:

Wikipedia

Mario Portaro is a hoax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia/Maria_Portaro

A list of Wikipedia hoaxes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia

Information can easily be created online, and spread without verification. Do not trust everything you read.

Wikipedia

Effective information hunters develop the art of looking at lists of results, and being able to tell as they glance through the list (skimming) whether the source will be relevant and good quality.

We all process information at different speeds, so it doesn’t matter whether you do this quickly or slowly, but being able to pick out the best sources helps you avoid wasting time clicking irrelevant results.

3. Skimming source lists

Example: a student is looking for articles on students opinions on virtual field trips. Are any of these articles relevant?

Note the way you scan the details to see which articles you think will be relevant. Sometimes you cannot tell until opening the article.

Skimming: relevance

Google searches find many sources, you need to consider whether they are good quality and relevant for use in an academic essay. From this search page can you identify the sources: 1) a book 2) an academic journal, 3) an individual’s website 4) a science magazine

Skimming: source types

All these skills: questioning sources, looking at their relevance and quality, and so forth, are almost invisible skills. Some people do them automatically, others have to develop these habits.

As you search for information, always make sure you are using your evaluating skills: they will help you find better sources, look at information more critically, and conduct good quality research.

Don’t just gather and quote low quality “junk food” information; hunt carefully, read critically, and find the rich, satisfying sources which best feed your mind and research.

4. Evaluating

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Photos by V. Zarach.

4. Contact Details