Evaluating Sources, Author Credentials, and Online Identity

During the summer, I try to keep these posts light, saving the meaty, research-oriented posts for the school year when the information is likely to be immediately applicable.  However, I've been thinking a lot about evaluating sources lately, and wanted to just jot down a few of my thoughts as they are germinating.  I may write more about this later (during the school year), but today I want to make the connection between online identity and evaluating resources.

As any researcher will admit, taking the time to evaluate the articles, books, websites, and other resources found during the research process can be one of the most important and one of the most frustrating steps in the whole research process--how do you know that the information that you've found is good?  In general, resources should be judged on five criteria (read more about those five criteria here).  One of these criteria--authority--makes the researcher consider the source of the information.  The researcher should ask, " Is the person, organization, or institution responsible for the intellectual content of the information knowledgeable in that subject?"


Seems like an easy question, but, if you're just starting out on a research project, how would you know (or find out) whether or not an author is particularly knowledgeable in a subject?  Usually, this involves a bit more background research:  a researcher may search their local library catalog (Addison for us), or another catalog, like WorldCat, to see what other books a particular person has written on a topic.  Similarly, researchers could conduct author searches in subject databases like Web of Science or PubMed to find other articles authored by a particular person and see if that author seems to have a subject expertise in a particular area.  In light of the social media and social networking boom of the past few years, though, I think that this element of evaluating the authority of authors and their publications just got a whole lot more interesting.  


Sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, and other social networking sites now make it possible to uncover a wealth of information about scholars, researchers, and authors.  While not every author will have an accessible (public) social networking presence, increasing numbers of authors/researchers/scholars are turning to the web to enhance their scholarly reputations and identities.  I blogged about this idea earlier this spring, and am working on a related presentation and article for other librarians.  Regardless of my personal/professional interest in this topic, I have been thinking about the potential value of these sites for students interested in really thinking about the authority of their information and who is producing it.  


I recently read a really interesting, related blog post, and of course, can't find it again in my Google Reader mess....  However, the post included several lengthy student quotes about research, one of which summarized a student's use of LinkedIn to help her evaluate a resource she was having trouble evaluating.  Essentially, she used LinkedIn to review a particular author's education, professional associations, and employment history, ultimately helping her judge whether or not that author was reliable.  That is really cool!


In some ways, it seems like scholars have more control over their reputations than they ever have before.  New researchers can certainly benefit from this, since Googling an author's name may now turn up more than enough information on an author for a new researcher to be able to really consider his/her reliability.  If you're interested in learning more about tools that could help you (1) control your online reputation and/or (2) track down information about other researchers, then check out this scholarly identity handout I created for last spring's Graduate Education Week.  I'll definitely be writing more on this topic in the near future.