 Before using a source for a college assignment, you must first evaluate it to make sure it's of high quality. When conducting a Google search for information, you will get pages and pages of search results that are likely very relevant to your search, because relevance is the main criteria Google uses when returning results. But how will you know if the sources are reliable, accurate, and of good quality? The answer is you won't unless you evaluate each source for yourself. How can you find out if a source is good enough to rely on for a college research paper? One way is to use the radar method. Radar is an easy to remember acronym to help you examine key criteria when evaluating a source. Radar stands for Rational, Authority, Date, Accuracy, and Relevance. Rational. What is the rationale for creating the source? Why was the source created? What is its purpose? As a college student, you were seeking sources that were created for the purpose of informing the reader or continuing the scholarly conversation on a given topic. On the open internet, there are many marketing sites and advertisements, which may at first appear to be sources created to inform. Sources that are indeed created to market or advertise should be avoided or at the very least used with extreme caution. This is due to the rationale for creating these sources. If I am in the business of selling memory boosting supplements on the internet, of course I'll be happy to tell you that my memory supplements are exactly what you need in order to study and remember everything when you take your next test, regardless if that is true. It's better to get information from an impartial third-party source with no vested interest in convincing you to buy something. Authority. Authority is all about the credentials of the author and the reputation of the organization, publisher, or journal creating or disseminating the information. If there is no author or organization responsible listed, that is a very bad sign. If you are proud of your work and qualified to write about a subject, why wouldn't you put your name on your work? What makes someone an authority on a particular subject? There are various ways a person can become an authority and the ways can change depending on what kind of information you're looking for. Common ways to become an authority on a topic are through education or experience. If I'm looking for information on how the human brain creates memories, for example, I would want to find a source by a medical doctor, researcher, or professor who specializes in the human brain. Someone like a neuroscientist or a neuropsychologist would be an authority on human memory. I can tell a neuroscientist might be an authority on human memory by looking up the credentials needed for that job. Neuroscientists have doctorate degrees and work in hospitals, universities, or research facilities. If I'm looking for information on repairing my car, someone who has worked as a mechanic for many years would be a better authority to turn to than a neuroscientist, so it's important to judge each information need independently and consider who could be an expert on that topic. The reputation and credentials of an organization, publisher, or journal are also indicators of authority. A news outlet like The New York Times, founded in 1851, has a reputation as a newspaper of record for the United States. We can put more trust in an article from The New York Times than we can in an article posted on someone's blog because of their reputation. We know they adhere to journalistic standards and ethics and have a lot to lose by publishing bad information. When determining the authority of a source, check the title. Look for a listed author or organization. Look for a short bio or credentials near the author's name. Read the About Us page to learn more about the organization publishing the source. Google the author or organization's name to learn more about their mission and reputation. Check the URL. Does it match the name of the website? What is the domain? .gov and .edu are limited to government bodies and educational institutions like community colleges and universities, while .com, .net, and .org domains can be purchased and set up by anyone. You can even narrow your Google searches to show only .gov or .edu sites by searching for site, .gov, and your keywords. Date. Check the source for a publication or last updated date. No date listed is often a bad sign. How recent is the source? The context in which the source was created or last updated is important because news outlets and other sources report as events unfold. The information available right away or before an event has been investigated might not present the full or accurate picture. Consider your topic. The date a source was created is especially important for current events and disciplines where new studies, revelations, and technologies evolve at a rapid pace. For example, consider how damaging it could be if a doctor treated his patients based on medical research about memory problems that was 30 years old. The medical and scientific communities have made great strides in diagnosing and treating many illnesses that affect the brain since then, and new medical innovations become available all the time. For some topics though, like a paper about a playwright born in 1564, an older source might still be appropriate. Accuracy. Accuracy is about verifying the information in a source. Look for errors or statements you know to be false. Check for warning signs like broken links, misspelled words, poor grammar, and sensational language, and instead look for sources with quotes, data, and references to experts. Scholarly sources will generally include a list of references at the end of the article. Charts or tables should clearly label where the data came from. Look for other sources that can corroborate the information in the source you are evaluating. Consider if the source was peer reviewed or edited. Relevance. Relevance is checking that the information is not only credible and accurate, but also on topic, appropriate, and useful for your information need. Check your professor's assignment instructions carefully. Does your professor specify which kinds of sources you can use for the assignment? Consider the intended audience for the source. All three of these sources came up in searches for memory, but only one is on topic. The library's physical and online sources are all carefully vetted by librarians. We have selected high quality sources that support the curriculum at IRSE. However, you still need to evaluate these sources for relevance to make sure they fit your information need, relate to your topic, and meet the requirements for your assignments. That sums up the radar method. Remember, it's important to evaluate every source you use for college assignments and for life in general. We look for and use information in our daily lives to make big decisions and to stay informed, so it's crucial that the information we use be rational, authoritative, timely, accurate, and relevant. We know it can be overwhelming looking through the millions of sources available. Get in touch with an IRSE librarian for personalized assistance finding and evaluating sources.