Evaluating Sources
When evaluating sources, we look at
quality, accuracy, relevance, bias, reputation, currency, and
credibility factors in a specific work. This article breaks down the
questions to ask yourself when evaluating a source – who, what, where,
when, and why (sometimes we also need to add "how") – it then summarises
these into the 5Ws. What are your 5Ws?
5.1.1 Evaluating Books
5.1.4 Evaluating Social Media
Although social media (for example, Twitter or Facebook) is generally treated as an object under study rather than a source of information on a topic, the prevalence of social media as communication and sharing platforms must be acknowledged. It's important to be skeptical of these sources, especially for inclusion in a literature review. However, as with any other web resource,you can evaluate a social media posting for authenticity by asking the following questions:
- Location of the source – Is the author in the place they are tweeting or posting about?
- Network – Who is in the author's network and who follows the account?
- Content – Can the information be corroborated from other sources?
- Contextual updates – Does the author usually post or tweet on this topic? If so, what did past or updated posts say? Do they fill in more details?
- Reliability – does the author cite sources and are those sources reliable?