Evaluating sources

Once you’ve found information on your topic, you need to assess its reliability and decide whether to use it in your research. This page introduces why evaluation matters and provides some quick ways to get started.

Our Evaluating Sources guide

Use the tips on this page alongside our Evaluating Sources guide, which offers further guidance and practical steps to work through the evaluation process.

Why evaluate?

Critically evaluating your sources helps you build strong, credible academic work. It enables you to:

  • Use reliable, relevant, and up‑to‑date information
  • Spot bias, misinformation, and unsupported claims
  • Understand the purpose and context in which information is created
  • Develop a lifelong skill for making informed decisions in study, work, and everyday life

Quick tips to get started

Critical evaluation is more than a quick glance at a source. It involves lateral reading, careful questioning, and comparing multiple perspectives. To begin, ask yourself:

1. Who is responsible for the information?

  • Who is the author and/or publisher?
  • What are their qualifications, credentials or affiliations?
  • Are their views and funding disclosed?
  • Do they have any financial or political motivation in expressing a particular viewpoint?

2. What is the evidence?

  • Is the argument clear and logical and supported by evidence?
  • Are the sources, data and methods presented transparently?
  • Are claims supported by data or research?
  • Is the information accurate or verifiable?
  • Is the information up to date? Or has new research/evidence superseded it?

3. What do other sources say?

  • Are there other reliable sources that discuss the same arguments, topic or source?
  • How do your sources interconnect to present a fair and balanced comprehensive view of the topic?
  • Can you trace the original context?

 

Further guidance

Our in‑depth Evaluating sources guide helps you build confidence in evaluating both scholarly and non‑academic sources. It covers:

  • The qualities of different types of sources and what to look out for
  • How to use evaluation frameworks such as CRAAP, CASP, and SIFT across different disciplines
  • Ways to broaden your research by seeking out underrepresented voices and diverse perspectives

We also run bookable workshops on evaluating sources and you are welcome to book a 1:1 with us for further support.

Subject Librarians

For further help with evaluating sources please contact your Subject Librarian, who you can find listed by subject here.