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ACCURACY, AUTHORITY, RELIABILITY
- ACCURACY - the correctness of the information presented. This isn't always easy to verify, but common sense should tell you a few things:
- Can the information be verified by other sources? That is, is the information supported by other sources?
- Is the claim so outlandish or weird that its veracity can't be confirmed? Remember the old adage: "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
- AUTHORITY - what are the credentials of the person who wrote the article?
- Peer-reviewed articles in academic journals are almost always written by experts with PhDs or other advanced degrees.
- Articles in the professions are most often written by person holding degrees in that field. Lawyers write for lawyers, nurses write for nurses, engineers write for engineers, etc.
- Beware of big, sweeping, general statements without any authority behind them:
- "Everyone knows that ..."
- "Recent studies show that ..."
- RELIABILITY - is the information stable? That is, will it change, or is it subject to easy editing?
- Reliability is why Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia article, and anyone can write one, too.
The CRAAP Test (no, really, that's what it's called)
