- When was the information published or posted?
- Has the information been revised or updated?
- Does your topic require current information, or will older sources work as well?
- Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
- Who is the intended audience?
- Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
- Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining that this is one you will use?
- Would you be comfortable citing this source in your research paper?
- Who is the author / publisher / source / sponsor?
- What are their credentials or organizational affiliations?
- Is the author qualified to write on the topic?
- (Hint: This question cannot be answered simply by reading the source itself. You will need to find more information about the author / publisher, such as by looking them up on Wikipedia.)
- Where does the information come from?
- Is the information supported by evidence?
- Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
- Can you verify any of the information in other sources?
- What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain, or persuade?
- Do the authors / sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
- Is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda?
- Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?
- Who benefits from the story that is being told?
- Whose voices, concerns, and experiences are included? Whose are excluded?
- What assumptions are made? What unexamined beliefs does the author appear to have? What is the author unconscious or unaware of?
- What power dynamics are at work?
