Library study skills

Choose what to use

Credible and relevant – choose your information with care

Being able to find credible, trustworthy information both at uni and in the workplace, is an important and challenging task. There is so much information available to us. Critically evaluating the information you find is key to study success. You will also need to choose credible sources in the workplace – you don’t want to give your boss something that turns out to be inaccurate.

So, why do you need to evaluate information?

Click the plus (+) symbols in the image below to discover why evaluating information is important.

Can we rely on Wikipedia as a credible source?

Unfortunately not. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia page and the content is not checked or reviewed for accuracy, bias, expertise, authority, etc. You wouldn’t cite a Wikipedia article as a credible source in your essay. However, Wikipedia is a useful place to start to get an understanding of a topic. It may also lead you to other resources which are relevant or of high quality. Try looking at the references which appear at the bottom of a Wikipedia page and assess the quality of the references you find. Many Wikipedia entries will cite scholarly resources (including books and journal articles) in their references. You can use this technique to locate other references which, if appropriate, can then be cited in your essay.

Evaluation methods

Dependability Checklist

To help you evaluate articles and information you find for your assessments and research, we have created a Dependability Checklist! It can help you make decisions about the dependability, credibility and trustworthiness of the sources you are considering using in your assessments.

The checklist doesn't have all the answers. It's a learning tool. It's designed to help you learn about things to consider when evaluating a source and to practice asking the right questions. Once you have developed the skill of evaluating information by asking the correct questions, you won't need to rely on the checklist.

Review articles quickly

Academic articles have a distinctive structure. Typical sections are:

• abstract
• introduction
• methodology
• findings
• discussion
• conclusion
• reference list (or a bibliography)

Understanding this structure can help you speed through an article to evaluate it for your need. The good news is that you don’t have to read every word to make that decision!

Watch this video from Kiswaukee College Library that steps through how to read and evaluate an article efficiently.