CWC: Acadians and Modern-Day Displacement: Evaluating Sources & Detecting Bias

Credibility refers to whether or not a source can be reliably assumed to be trustworthy and accurate. For example, Wikipedia is not considered a credible source because anyone is able to edit it. However, a peer-reviewed journal article can generally be assumed to be credible because it has been written by experts and has passed multiple rounds of inspection by other experts. That said, you should take the time to examine your sources regardless of where you found them to be sure that they're credible.

There are four major criteria to think about when determining whether or not a source is credible:

1. Authorship: Is the author an authority or expert on the subject?
   • Do they have any qualifications attached to their name, such as a Ph.D?
   • Are they affiliated with any place or group? If so, where and does that potentially affect their work?
   • Has the author written about this subject before?
   • If there is no author, who has posted the information?
     • Sometimes information may still be okay to use if there is no author. For example, items from .gov domains are government publications, which are an authority. You must be more careful when using commercial domains like .com or .ca. .org (nonprofits) and .edu (school websites) might also have valuable information, but should also be examined carefully as they might be inexpert or biased.
        
2. Accuracy: Is the information presented factual?
   • Check the information against other credible sources. Do they line up?
     • If the information doesn't have anything to compare against, again refer to authorship -- are they qualified to be writing about this?
     • If the work has citations attached, look at them to see how they have been used and interpreted.
        
3. Currency: Is the information up to date and/or historically relevant to what you're researching?
   • Are there newer sources to look at or newer developments in the field?
     • This will depend heavily on the field -- for example, a Van Gogh artwork will not change if you are studying Impressionist art, but new discoveries are made in STEM fields often.
     • If you are using older sources when newer ones are available, what purpose do they serve in your research? Are they a comparison point?
        
4. Objectivity: Is the information presented without bias?
   • Check for the signs that a source might be biased using the criteria we provided in the Bias section on this page.

Spotting Fake News & Misinformation (infographic from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions)

Bias refers to the favour of a certain idea, side, or thing. It is present in many kinds of writing on many different kinds of sites, sometimes unconsciously. We often gravitate towards news and articles that appeal to our own beliefs, but this is not the best way to research.

Why does bias matter?

Being too biased towards a side will affect your research. You must be able to be objective and apply critical thinking towards various perspectives. Learning requires you to be able to be open to new ideas and information.

Signs that a source may be biased:

• the primary purpose of the source is to profit, promote, endorse, entertain, or persuade;
• the source provides a singular viewpoint without or with only negative reference to others;
• the source does not use factual evidence to back up their claims or only presents facts without context that support their side;
• the source uses excessively strong hyperbole or inappropriate language, and/or;
• the source is written by a person who doesn't seem to otherwise exist, lacks writing experience or expertise, or typically writes on other, unrelated topics.

Types of Bias (infographic from Business Insider)

Bias Checkers