A study published in the journal Animal Cognition found that dogs quickly disregard a person who has given them false information in the past. Clearly if you’ve been fooled by an information source before, you’re less likely to rely on that source again.

But what about sources you’ve never encountered before? What is it about a source of information that makes it worth paying attention to?

Taking into consideration the author(s) of the information and where their expertise comes from can go a long way to help determine if a source is credible or not. Let’s think about some ways we can investigate an author's background.

The author’s official credentials

An author's credentials can include items of recognition such as academic degrees, awards, or professional titles related to the topic. Credentials such as these indicate that the author of the information has been recognized as an authority in a specific field, which may make them more believable. However, just because someone has an official seal of approval doesn’t mean that everything they say is automatically true. It is the researcher’s responsibility to follow up and to verify the information with multiple other sources.

The author’s history of publishing about the topic

Even though there may be only one source you’re interested in using at the moment, taking a few minutes to find other information sources by the same person can be very informative. If they’ve written many articles on the same topic this can indicate deep engagement with and understanding of the topic, or it may simply mean that they’re re-using the same information over again. Depending on the scope of your research, it may be worth checking to see how the sources have been received by others in the field (have they been cited frequently, ignored, or even debunked by other scholars?)

How did they get their authority?

Finding out an author’s credentials lets you know what level of authority an author currently holds, but how did they earn that authority? For college degrees and similar credentials, you’ll at least know that some institution was comfortable granting that person the title of Ph.D., for instance.

There are other ways of becoming an authority, however. Someone might be an authority in their community on taking care of children, because the community has seen their expertise in action. That community will consult that person as an authority and rely on information they provide, even though they have no external credentials. Another person might be an authority on skateboarding. Their authority might have been earned through winning official awards at competitions, or earned from impressing other skateboarders on the street.

The point is that everyone has some area where they have developed expertise, and these “non-official” authorities are just as valid as “official” ones in the right context.

The context(s) of the source

While looking into the author’s background is a good way to start figuring out whether you can believe a source or not, it isn’t the end of the story. It is important to understand both the information’s intended context, and the context you are using it in.

INTENDED CONTEXT

When someone creates information, it is created for a reason. Academic authors normally create information in the course of their research, to advance knowledge in their fields. Politicians often create information in order to persuade others to support them. Students create information to fulfill course requirements, but also in many other contexts such as online communication with friends and family, their own personal research interests, hobbies, job-related tasks, etc.

When using a source for research purposes, considering why it was originally created and how that perspective might affect the content of the source is a vital step in assessing its credibility.

Also make sure the author’s expertise matches the topic. Is the author an expert in chemistry, but writing an article online about politics? In that case their chemistry expertise is not really relevant when evaluating that particular article.

YOUR CONTEXT

The purpose you have in mind for an information source affects how thoroughly you’ll need to examine the credibility of the author, as well as which authors are most likely to be valuable for your research. For instance, if you see a funny picture online and want to share it with a friend to make them laugh, it isn’t necessarily crucial that the image has been altered by an unknown person.

However, if you want to use the same picture to illustrate a point in a scholarly paper, it’s absolutely essential to verify its source and accuracy. It’s up to you to determine the level of verification appropriate for your current needs.

Conclusion

The article referenced at the beginning of this quest was written for a magazine as a summary of current scientific research for a popular audience. It included the main conclusions of the research, but didn’t share the detailed findings. If you’re a fan of dogs and want to send something to your friend to show how smart they are, this is probably fine. Psychology Today is a well-known, credible site for news and general information.

However, if you’re doing academic research and want to use this as an example in a paper, it would be wiser to click on the link to the original scholarly article to make sure the newspaper isn’t overstating or otherwise misrepresenting the results. The authors of the original article have official scientific credentials, and the article has gone through the peer-review process, enhancing its credibility that much more. Either version of the information in these two sources is credible, but the authors’ intended context affects how the information is presented as well as the context in which you might use it.

As discussed in the sections above, there is no one sure-fire way to determine the credibility of all sources. Each time you begin researching, you’ll need to decide what level of credibility and authority are appropriate for your current purposes. As you think about where to find information, you’ll need to think about what types of authorities might have created the information you need. In the following exercise, you’ll read about one way this can play out in real life, and have a chance to try out some of these ideas for yourself.

1. Based on what you've learned in this quest, answer the following question: Is Wikipedia a credible source? Explain your answer.

2. Read the following article: How to (try to) Lie With Wikipedia: The manufactured history of neckbeard-shaming by Jessamyn West. After reading the article, is your answer to question #1 the same? Why or why not?

3. The author of the article took it upon herself to investigate and correct (if necessary) the Wikipedia article on Thoreau. Your assignment now is to find a Wikipedia article related to your topic and to examine the References section at the end of the article. Then:

a) Find one citation that you consider authoritative or credible, and copy and paste it. What makes this a credible source?

b) Find one citation that you are doubtful about, and copy and paste it (If you are confident about all of the citations, paste a second credible citation). What makes you question the credibility of this resource? (or if you pasted in a second credible resource, what makes it credible?)

Bonus: Fix the citation that you are doubtful about, either by replacing it with a more authoritative source, or by editing it out of the article if you can prove it is incorrect. By doing this, you are helping to make Wikipedia a more credible source!