Why is author credibility important

You must consider the credentials of an information source. Credentials may include professional affiliations , academic and professional credentials , reputation , and prior publications. Who is the author? Credible sources are written by authors respected in their fields of study. Responsible, credible authors will cite their sources so that you can check the accuracy of and support for what they've written.

This is also a good way to find more sources for your own research. What is the author's purpose? When deciding which sources to use, you should take the purpose or point of view of the author into consideration.

Is the author presenting a neutral, objective view of a topic? Another important component of a source's credibility is its point of view, in particular its potential bias. Bias is an inaccurate or unfair presentation of information.

In some cases, bias is intentional. A group with its own agenda may sponsor research or information, and this sponsorship may influence the results. Bias can also be unintentional. A writer's perspective may prevent him or her from being able to see all sides of an issue.

Sometimes you need unbiased facts to support your point. But other times you might want people's opinions, and that's OK as long as you acknowledge the source's perspective in your work.

Domain names can tell you who sponsors the site and the purpose of that sponsorship. Some examples include educational. Depending on your topic, you may want to avoid dot-com websites because their primary purpose tends to be commerce, which can significantly affect the content that they publish.

Additionally, consider the purpose that the website serves. Does the website provide references to support the claims that it makes? If the answers to these types of questions are not readily available, it may be best to look in other places for a reliable source. There are increasing numbers of non-scholarly sites that pertain to particular topics, but are not scholarly sources.

Blogs, for example, may cater to a particular topic or niche, but they are typically created and managed by an individual or party with an interest in promoting the content of the blog. Some blog writers may have valid credentials, but because their writing is not peer-reviewed or held to an academic standard, sites such as these are typically unreliable sources. Remember, when researching, the goal is not only to gather sources, but to gather reliable resources.

To do this, you should be able to not only track the claims contained within a source, but also consider the stakes that may be involved for the author making those claims. While personal motivation may not always be accessible in a document, in some cases there can be contextual clues, like the type of publisher or sponsor.

These may lead you to decide that one source is more reliable than another. Money and magnifying glass : When you evaluate scholarly sources, look out for potential conflicts of interest and hidden agendas. In academic writing, the sources you use must be reliable; therefore, you should rely mainly on scholarly sources as the foundation for your research.

Research is the foundation of a strong argument, theory, or analysis. When constructing your research paper, it is important to include reliable sources in your research. Without reliable sources, readers may question the validity of your argument and your paper will not achieve its purpose. Academic research papers are typically based on scholarly sources and primary sources. Scholarly sources include a range of documents, source types, and formats, but they share an important quality: credibility.

More than any other source you are likely to encounter during your research, a scholarly source is most likely to be reliable and accurate.

Primary sources are documents that were written or created during the time period under study. They include letters, newspaper articles, photographs, and other artifacts that come directly from a particular time period. A scholarly source can be an article or book that was written by an expert in the academic field. Most are by professors or doctoral students for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Since the level of expertise and scrutiny is so high for these articles, they are considered to be among the best and most trustworthy sources. If an article does not, try searching for the author online to see how much expertise he or she has in the field. You may decide to use sources that are not scholarly articles, such as interviews or newspaper articles.

These sources should also be written by an expert in the field and published by a reputable source. An investigative essay in the New Yorker would be fine; an investigative essay in the National Enquirer would not. Other types of scholarly sources include non-print media such as videos, documentaries, and radio broadcasts. Who is writing this text, and are they themselves a reputable source or well-informed expert on the subject?

Make sure the author of the text is well informed about the subject they are writing about. As we continue to acquire new information and understanding on subjects, our older texts become less reliable.

For example, many credit Sigmund Freud for his theories that helped advance the field of psychology, but many who study and practice within psychology now would never utilize any of his theories in their practice, especially with patients. Even texts written as recent as a year ago can be discredited by another more recent study.

In order to ensure the accuracy of the information, many texts, especially academic texts, are peer-reviewed by other subject matter experts.