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Allied Health Resources: Evaluating Resources - Tutorials & Guides

Evaluating Your Sources

An extremely important part of the research process is evaluating your sources.  With each source, you want to answer questions to check the credibility of the information.

What to look for:

WEBSITE: The website should provide information about their mission, goals, funding, services and qualifications.

  • What are their qualifications (education, experience, etc.)?

  •  Do they provide enough information to demonstrate their credibility?

  • Do they list the members of the organization?  Do they include their contact information?

 

RELIABLE: The information should be accurate with documentation and evidence to show that it is true.

  • What information does the website provide?

  • Are their claims supported by evidence?  How do you know?

 

PURPOSE: Decide the purpose of the website by looking closely at the information.

  • What is the purpose of the article and website?

  • How can you tell who the information is intended for and what missing information do you need?

Tutorial: How to Evaluate Health Resources on the Internet

It is extremely important to evaluate the sources of the information you find on the Internet, especially medical information.

Because anyone can put information on the web, so you need to be able to verify the credibility of the source and the information provided on the web sites you use for your research and studies.  

Here is a short 16 minute tutorial on how to evaluate the health related information you will find on the web. 

Source:

NIH: National Library of Medicine

  

Watch: Evaluating Websites

Portland Community College Library

What About Wikipedia?

undefinedWhile Wikipedia has a lot of information that many find useful, we know anyone can edit Wikipedia articles.  The library has several other valuable resources such as ebooks, encyclopedias and articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals.  Many instructors will not allow Wikipedia to be used in academic research and Wikipedia has its own cautions about using its information for research. 

Wikipedia’s own statement states that:

  • It is not a reliable source for research. 
  • Not everything in Wikipedia is accurate, comprehensive, or unbiased.
  • Anyone may edit an article, deleting accurate information or adding false information.


If you must use Wikipedia to find the information you are seeking, use it only for background, overview information and evaluate the information by doing the following: 

  • Use the C. R. A. P. Test 
  • Checked the sources listed at the end of the article to see if they are credible. 
  • Check the Talk section of the article to see the discussion among the editors who contributed to the article.
  • Compare the arguments and evidence from the article with information from other credible sources to verify its accuracy.