Information Literacy Skills > Evaluating reliability

Introduction

When you find a piece of information you have to be as sure as possible that it is information which you can depend on. This means knowing that the information is correct and fully detailed.

You want to know that the information is:

• Accurate - all facts are correct and there are no typographical errors or misspellings.
• Authoritative - originating from a person or organisation which knows about the subject
• Unbiased - does not present only one side of an argument or gives the wrong impression by leaving out important facts
• Authentic - originates from the person or organisation named

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