Evaluating Information and Information Sources
Is This Information Relevant and Timely?
Once you have decided that the type or category of information is suitable for inclusion in your assignment the next task is to determine the relevance of the information. No matter how credible a source, if it is not relevant to your research question it is of no use for the project at hand.
Example:
Research question: How does having diverse members in a group increase the critical thinking of the group?
Main concepts of research question: Group diversity, critical thinking
Evaluation of sources:
| Currency Okay | Group Diversity | Critical Thinking | |
| Source A | X | X | |
| Source B | X | ||
| Source C | X | X | X |
The table in this hypothetical example indicates that both Sources A and C are relevant because each pertains to at least one main concept from the research question and all sources are deemed current. However, since currency is all that Source B has to offer, it is not relevant for this project.
Currency and Timeliness
As alluded to in the previous table, one thing to consider early on as you make inferences about relevancy is the effect that timeliness, or a source’s currency, should have on deciding whether a source is relevant. Sometimes timeliness has a lot to do with relevancy; sometimes it is less important. Your research question and your discipline determine this.
For instance, if your research concerns medicine, health sciences, or technology you probably should consider only the most recent sources relevant because information and knowledge in these disciplines is changing so quickly. There is a good chance that anything besides the most recent sources may be out of date. Other disciplines such as history or mathematics place value on much older material.
Suppose your research question is about the Edo Period in Japan (1603-1868) or about Robert Falcon Scott, who explored the Antarctic from 1901-1913. In these cases, an item from 1918 might be just as useful as an item from 2018 (although new information may have been found in the 100-year gap). But something from 1899 about Antarctica or from 1597 about Japan would not be current enough for these research questions.
These examples also give you two more clues about how to treat the timeliness or currency of sources as you consider relevance:
- Because of how long ago they lived or occurred, it would be more unusual for many sources on Robert Scott or the Edo Period to have been published very recently. So, unlike sources for the sciences or technology, whether a source is very recent should probably not determine its relevancy to research questions about Scott or the Edo Period.
- Primary sources might be considered especially relevant to many humanities and other non-science research questions. For disciplines in the humanities, the phrase primary sources refer to sources created at the same time as something under study, in this case things such as Scott’s diaries and expedition photographs, as well as paintings, literature, clothing, and household items from the Edo Period. They go a long way to explain faraway people and times. On the other hand, when science disciplines use the phrase primary source, they usually mean where they primarily find the information they consider valid, i.e. in scholarly journals.
It is not necessary to read every word of every source to make an initial judgement regarding its relevance and currency. If you’re looking at the right parts of your source, that should give you enough information to infer this. Furthermore, you can check for both relevance and currency at the same time. The following tabs give you some tips for what to check when assessing the relevance and timeliness of journal articles and scholarly books.
Remember that the name of a source does not always indicate its relevance, don’t stop evaluating after looking only at the title of a potentially relevant source (obviously this does not apply if it is glaringly obvious that it is unrelated!).
Establishing Relevance and Timeliness – Scholarly Articles
| Publication Date | Publication date is stated on the first page of the article (usually near either the top or the bottom of the page). |
|---|---|
| Filter Down | Publication date is shown on each individual record that is returned when searching the Library catalogue, databases, or Google Scholar. You can also filter your results to show only a specified date-range*. |
| Research Date | The article publication date and the date that the research was undertaken obviously differ. The methods section of an article should confirm when the research was undertaken; it may also be mentioned in the abstract. |
| Catalogue Record | Clicking in to the Library catalogue record for each article may provide a description that will help determine relevance. Click on the title of the article to get to the “Details” section*
Do not dismiss potentially useful titles if they do not have a full description here, however. This is not indicative of the quality or potential of the article. However, it does mean that you will have to work a little harder to determine its potential relevance. |
| Keywords | Article keywords are often listed on its first page. These can help to both determine the relevance of the article at hand and provide search terms to search for other relevant sources. Keywords are also often listed on the article’s catalogue record. |
| Abstract | Examine the abstract of the article. Almost every scholarly article commences with an abstract which is a summary of its content. The information contained in the abstract is a strong indicator of whether or not the article will be relevant for your assignment. |
| Headings | If the abstract is interesting next skim the main points of the article’s headings i.e. introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion. If you are interested in a specific methodology or population then the methods section will be of particular significance. |
When you deem an article likely to be relevant, make sure you save it so you can easily return to read it carefully at a later point. You could create a folder and save the pdf of the article in it. If doing this make sure to give your article an appropriate name as otherwise it can get very confusing when you later return to read a large collection of saved articles. Alternatively, you could export the citation to reference management software such as Endnote. Endnote will also import the pdf of the article where possible.
*For a refresher on how to manipulate the Library catalogue go back to the videos in Chapter II: “Searching The Library Catalogue“
Establishing Relevance and Timeliness – Scholarly Books
| Publication Date | The publication date of a print book is stated on the ‘verso’ or reverse side of the title page. Many electronic books (ebooks) are presented on screen in exactly the same format as their print counterparts and so this will also apply.
For ebooks that do not directly resemble a print book in appearance, the date of publication should be clearly visible, i.e. on the book’s “homepage”. |
|---|---|
| Filter Down | Publication date is shown on each individual record that is returned when searching the Library catalogue. You can also filter your results to show only a specified date-range*. |
| Catalogue Record | Clicking in to the Library catalogue record for each book may provide a description that will help determine relevance. Click on the title of the book to get to the “Details” section*
Do not dismiss potentially useful titles if they do not have a full description here, however. This is not indicative of the quality or potential of the book. However, it does mean that you will have to work a little harder to determine its potential relevance. |
| Author | Author details are provided on the verso, or on the inside cover, of a print book or ebook that retains the appearance of a print book. On other ebooks the author biography or a link to same can usually be found in the same location as the publication date. |
| Table Of Contents | The table of contents will provide a very good indication of relevance. Look over all of the chapters listed: some might not be relevant, but others may. |
| Index | The topics listed in the index also indicate relevance or otherwise. If the index identifies that some of the concepts of your research question are covered over several pages of the book it may well be a promising source. |
| Introduction/Preface | Skim the introduction or preface at the start of the book to gain insight on what is covered in the publication.
Sometimes individual chapters will have their own introduction at the start of each chapter. This can be very useful, as can looking at the headings within each chapter. |
*For a refresher on how to manipulate the Library catalogue go back to the videos in Chapter II: “Searching The Library Catalogue”
