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Authority: Evaluation

This guide will help you better understand authority in the context of research and information and provide you with methods of evaluating an information source to determine its authority.
Last Updated: Oct 21, 2024 3:56 PM

Is A Checklist Enough?

You are likely to have encountered a check list of criteria used to evaluate information at some point in your academic career. 

These catchy acronyms encourage you to do a base level of vetting before diving in deep with a resource.

A researcher knows that evaluation does not stop after the checklist, but rather continues in complexity and is iterated throughout the entire research process.

Get a better grasp on how to begin the process below then deepen your evaluation with this section's resources by moving to Critical Evaluation next.

Start Here

When searching for information, we tend to seek that which confirms what we already know and how we already feel about a topic.

Research requires more from us as we seek for sources that go beyond bias to the truth of the issue. Learning is often uncomfortable, as we confront ideas that may disrupt our emotions or not fit with our established ideas or beliefs.

Keeping the personal biases in check is essential when evaluating information for authority and credibility.

Want to learn more about the impact of world views and implicit biases? Check the World View section of this guide.

Move on to the Personal Steps: IF I in the next tab.

"IF I APPLY" by Kathleen Phillips, Eryn Roles, & Sabrina Thomas licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Check the Resources page for additional checklist approaches to initial evaluation.

The Personal Steps: IF I

Identify emotions attached to the topic.

Find unbiased reference sources that will provide a proper and informative overview of the topic. See below for some possible options.

 

Intellectual courage is needed to seek authoritative voices on the topic that may fall outside your comfort zone or thesis.

Move to the Source Steps: APPLY in the next tab.

The Source Steps: APPLY

Authority established.

  • Does the author have education, experience, and expertise in the field?

Purpose/Point of view.

  • Does the author have an agenda beyond education or information?

Publisher.

  • Does the publisher have an agenda?

List of sources (bibliography).

  • Is the evidence reliable, sensible, and accessible?

Year of publication.

  • Does the date of publication affect the information?

Trusted Voices

Creative Commons