4/13/2006
Use this checklist as a guideline to evaluate the digital sources you have gathered and decide whether you are to use the source in your paper.
1. Relevance:
- In what ways is this source relevant to your research?
2. Authority:
- Is the publisher/database/sponsor of the website qualified in providing reliable information on this topic?
- What is the author's background and professional affliation? With his/her background, is the author qualified to provide information on this topic?
3. Accuracy
- Are the author's views supported with adequate evidence? Is the evidence credible?
- Have you encountered the author's ideas before? How are these ideas connected? How do they differ?
- Does the author recognize opposing viewpoints and present the information with a control of bias?
- How accurate is the information? Does the author document all the sources in the list of references? Does the list of references show that some serious research has been conducted?
4. Currency
- How current are the author's views? Is the source up-to-date?
Are you going to use the source after this check? Summarize your reasons based on your answers to the evaluation questions.
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