I can identify the sponsors of both websites. How can their credibility be evaluated?
Can you find out information about them? Are they an established publisher, a government agency, a nonprofit organization, an advocacy group, an educational or research institution, or a commercial website? If the amount of information you can find about the sponsor/publisher is limited, that weighs against the credibility of the source.
How can the credibility of the authors be evaluated?
If the authors are identified, can you determine whether they have expertise in this field? Are they researchers associated with a government agency, an established nonprofit organization, or an educational or research institution? Can you determine if they have published articles or books on the topic or otherwise demonstrated their expertise? If the authors are not identified, or if their expertise can't be determined, it weighs against the credibility of a source.
How can the credibility of the information sources be evaluated?
First, see if there are citations to the sources of the information. If so, what sources are being cited? Are they scientific journal articles and conference proceedings, published books, dissertations, reports from government agencies or non-profit organizations, and similar sources? If there are no or few cited sources, or if the cited sources are not as reputable as these, it weighs against the credibility of a source.
How can the overall credibility of an information resource be evaluated?
In order to compare the credibility of two resources, look at each evaluation criterion in turn. For which resource are more of the evaluative criteria weighed towards greater credibility?
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