Research Guides: Evaluating Sources: Evaluation Rubric

Source Evaluation Rubric

This rubric can help you determine if a source is a "good" source; one that is reliable to use in your research or paper. It can help you weed out "bad" sources and defend your "good" sources to your instructor.

CCOW Rubric PDF

How to use this Rubric:

Enter information about the source at the top of the page, i.e. title, url, author, dates
For each line, starting with Credentials, read each box from left to right and choose the one that matches your source the best
Enter the column number, 1-3, that corresponds to the box that matches your source the best at the end of each row
Once every line has a number, tally the numbers in the right hand column and write the score at the bottom of the page

The score you tally is out of 12 total points. You must determine what is the lowest score you will accept. An acceptable score for a source to be used in a research paper for college is between 10 to 12.

CCOW Evaluation Rubric
	0 Points	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points
Credentials	No author No publisher or organization Many grammatical or spelling errors	Author or organization listed No author credentials No organization details No publisher listed Some grammatical or spelling errors	Author or organization listed with credentials/details Publisher listed Few grammatical or spelling errors	Expert author or well-known organization in the subject being discussed Credentials/details listed Well-known publisher No grammatical/spelling errors
Claims	No date No bibliography, quotes from authors, or links to other sources Information disagrees with most other sources or is inaccurate	Date shown but it’s more than 10 years old References are from more than 10 years ago Quotes are included but there’s no bibliography Links to sources are included but many/all are broken	Date shown and it’s 5-10 years old References are 5-10 years old Mix of bibliography, quotes, and links to sources Information mostly matches other sources or provides an opposing viewpoint for my topic	Recent date References are also recent Bibliography, quotes from authors, and/or links to original sources are included Information matches other sources or is accurate
Objective	Objective is to mislead or lie Objective is unclear or one-sided	Objective is sell a product, make you click links, or satire Objective is one-sided but not overly opinionated	Objective looks at two sides of an issue but is opinionated	Objective is to inform or broaden education Objective is clear For Humanities resources, looks at multiple sides of the issue
Worldview	Language/tone indicate intention is to persuade, mislead, or push an agenda Uses manipulative language	More opinion than fact Only presents one side of the issue Uses manipulative language	Some facts included Attempts to present more than one side of the issue Language/tone are mostly balanced	Mostly factual Agenda can be clearly identified and shares accurate/objective information For Humanities resources, includes more than one side of the issue Language/tone aren’t manipulative
				Total score:

Creative Commons License "CCOW Rubric" This link opens in a new window is licensed underThis link opens in a new window CC BY 4.0 This link opens in a new window A derivative by Deborah Moore, This link opens in a new windowHighline College Library from the original work This link opens in a new window