Ethics & Applications of Geospatial Technologies

• Consider these criteria in the context of your topic. 
• Weigh all four criteria when making your decision. For example, the information may appear accurate, but if the authority is suspect you may want to find a more authoritative source.
• When in doubt about a source, talk about it with your professor or a librarian.

Criteria:

1. Currency: When was the information published or last updated? Is it current enough for your topic?
2. Relevance: Is this the type of information you need (ex. a research study or scholarly article)? Is it detailed enough to help you answer questions on your topic?
3. Authority: Who is the author or creator of the information (can be an individual or an organization)? Are they an expert on your topic? Has the source been peer reviewed? Who is the publisher? Are they reputable?
4. Accuracy: Is the information true? What information does the author cite or refer to? Can you find this information anywhere else? Can you find evidence to back it up from another resource? Are studies mentioned but not cited?
5. Purpose/perspective: What is the purpose of the information? Was it written to sell something or to convince you of something? Is this fact or opinion based? Is it unfairly biased?

Take bearings: Before diving into an article, take a step back to survey the digital landscape. What do you know about the group or organization? You can learn some things from the About pages, but you might find out more by doing a Google search to see what other people are saying. This can help you to understand the context and purpose of the source.

Lateral reading: Instead of reading an article straight through, or scanning up and down the same website, you might need to jump around a bit. Open multiple tabs in your browser to follow links found within the source and do supplemental searches on names, organizations or topics you find. These additional perspectives will help you to evaluate the original article, and can end up saving you time.

Things to remember:

• The top result on Google is not always the best. Take a moment to scan the results and skim the snippets beneath the links.
• Just because a website looks professional or credible doesn't mean that it is.
• Sometimes you can find out more about a website by leaving the site itself.
• You can use the command-F keyboard shortcut to search within an article for a name, group, or word.
• Right-click on a link to open in a new tab.

Reference:

Wineburg, Sam and McGrew, Sarah. Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information (October 6, 2017). Stanford History Education Group Working Paper No. 2017-A1.