Being able to evaluate retrieved information will improve the quality of your assignments. It will save you wasting time reading that which is not relevant, and help you retain the focus of your research. These are some of the aspects to consider for information and materials you have retrieved for your studies:
- author authority - qualifications, experience, institutional affiliation, other publications
- is it recent research or historical background?
- currency of the material/document
- country of origin
- reputation of corporate sponsors
- for journals - is there an abstract, references, is it refereed?
- for books - "scholarly", publisher, series?
- introduction - how does the author relate to the topic & the audience
- statement of fact - how does the author place his/her proposition within the world view
- division- is there a statement of a plan of intent and structure for the paper
- use of statistics, charts, graphs etc.
- proof - is there evidence to support the proposition
- source of the information in the document, is there a bibliography?
- refutation - does the author dispose of opposing arguments, and how is this done?
- completeness - what was the criteria for the inclusion or exclusion of material
- relevance - is the document accurate and well-researched
- conclusion - is there a summing up which should be a restatement only of the paper
As any individual or organisation can share information electronically by publishing it on the Internet finding inaccurate, incomplete, and out of date materials is always a possibility. The majority of the information you will find reflects people's ideas and opinions. There is no central authority governing quality control of the information.
The problem is not the shortage of information, but making sense of the huge range of information available, and separating useful information from the junk. However, you can use criteria to analyse and evaluate the quality, usefulness, and validity of the resources you find. Some of the same criteria used to evaluate traditional print material may be used to evaluate the electronic resources of the Internet, as well as the following:
- is the URL of the site or document stable, or has it changed?
- does an individual, group, or organization sponsor or maintain the site?
- when was the document created and/or last revised?
- what is the author's name and professional or institutional standing or affiliation?
- what is the author's email and/or other addresses?
- does the site offer a variety of features in addition to delivering content, for example email links for further information, downloads, ordering, discussion lists)?
- what are the aesthetics and design principles of the material - text, graphics, links.
For more on evaluation use this Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources.