What criteria will you use to evaluate the credibility of your sources?

When researching and presenting a research paper or essay, it is imperative to evaluate the credibility and validity of the sources used. There are 4 useful avenues to take when validating your sources.

Checking the credentials of the author helps reassure the researcher the source will be useful in their paper. Reading the author's biography might suggest what kind of personal experience they have in relation to the subject being researched. A web search of the authors name and book reviews is another way to check credentials. This might give you an idea as to how committed the author is to the subject. If the author has written many other books of the same topic, it may suggest this author is a reputable source.

Another question to ask before using a source is if the author is impartial to this particular subject. Depending on how your paper is presented, an author with bias information may not be credible. If the author's goal is to persuade the reader to believe their side or opinion, this might not be relevant information to include without including a reference from the other side. Research reader reviews of the authors books to find out their reactions. Were they positive or negative?

Discovering the style and tone of the source is also a helpful way to decide if you want to include the information in your paper. Style and tone of the source tell you what audience the author is targeting. In most cases, sources that are targeted for general interest or written academically are the most credible for paper writing. Checking the Table of Contents or reading a random chapter in a book might help the researcher discover the style and tone of the author.

Lastly, the currency of the book is an important factor. Recent or primary sources are most beneficial when creating a paper, unless you are writing a biography for example. You then would use a secondary source. A secondary source is written after the primary source.