Source criticism (or information evaluation) is the process of evaluating an information source, i.e.: a document, a person, a speech, a fingerprint, a photo, an observation, or anything used in order to obtain knowledge. In relation to a given purpose, a given information source may be more or less valid, reliable or relevant. Broadly, "source criticism" is the interdisciplinary study of how information sources are evaluated for given tasks.

Meaning

Problems in translation: The Danish word ''kildekritik'', like the Norwegian word ''kildekritikk'' and the Swedish word ''källkritik'', derived from the German ''Quellenkritik'' and is closely associated with the German historian

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

(1795–1886). Historian Wolfgang Hardtwig wrote:

His anke'sfirst work ''Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494–1514'' (History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514) (1824) was a great success. It already showed some of the basic characteristics of his conception of Europe, and was of historiographical importance particularly because Ranke made an exemplary critical analysis of his sources in a separate volume, ''Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber'' (On the Critical Methods of Recent Historians). In this work he raised the method of
textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...
used in the late eighteenth century, particularly in classical philology to the standard method of scientific historical writing. (Hardtwig, 2001, p. 12739)

Historical theorist Chris Lorenz wrote:

The larger part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries would be dominated by the research-oriented conception of historical method of the so-called Historical School in Germany, led by historians as Leopold Ranke and Berthold Niebuhr. Their conception of history, long been regarded as the beginning of modern, 'scientific' history, harked back to the 'narrow' conception of historical method, limiting the methodical character of history to source criticism. (Lorenz, 2001)

In the early 21st century, source criticism is a growing field in, among other fields,

library and information science Library and information science(s) or studies (LIS) is an interdisciplinary field of study that deals generally with organization, access, collection, and protection/regulation of information, whether in physical (e.g. art, legal proceedings, e ...

. In this context source criticism is studied from a broader perspective than just, for example, history or biblical studies.

Principles

The following principles are from two Scandinavian textbooks on source criticism, written by the historians Olden-Jørgensen (1998) and Thurén (1997): * Human sources may be relics (e.g. a fingerprint) or narratives (e.g. a statement or a letter). Relics are more credible sources than narratives. * A given source may be forged or corrupted; strong indications of the originality of the source increases its reliability. * The closer a source is to the event which it purports to describe, the more one can trust it to give an accurate description of what really happened * A

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

is more reliable than a

secondary source In Scholarly method, scholarship, a secondary sourcePrimary, secondary and tertiary ...

, which in turn is more reliable than a

tertiary source A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sources * The reliability of a given source is relative to the questions put to it.

"The empirical case study showed that most people find it difficult to assess questions of cognitive authority and media credibility in a general sense, for example, by comparing the overall credibility of newspapers and the Internet. Thus these assessments tend to be situationally sensitive. Newspapers, television and the Internet were frequently used as sources of orienting information, but their credibility varied depending on the actual topic at hand" (Savolainen, 2007).

The following questions are often good ones to ask about any source according to the American Library Association (1994) and Engeldinger (1988): #How was the source located? #What type of source is it? #Who is the author and what are the qualifications of the author in regard to the topic that is discussed? #When was the information published? #In which country was it published? #What is the reputation of the publisher? #Does the source show a particular cultural or political bias? For literary sources complementing criteria are: #Does the source contain a bibliography? #Has the material been reviewed by a group of peers, or has it been edited? #How does the article/book compare with similar articles/books?

Levels of generality

Some principles of source criticism are universal, other principles are specific for certain kinds of information sources. There is today no consensus about the similarities and differences between source criticism in the natural science and humanities.

Logical positivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...

claimed that all fields of knowledge were based on the same principles. Much of the criticism of logical positivism claimed that positivism is the basis of the sciences, whereas

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate ...

is the basis of the humanities. This was, for example, the position of

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

. A newer position, in accordance with, among others,

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family ...

and

Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term '' paradigm ...

, understands both science and humanities as determined by researchers' preunderstanding and paradigms. Hermeneutics is thus a universal theory. The difference is, however, that the sources of the humanities are themselves products of human interests and preunderstanding, whereas the sources of the natural sciences are not. Humanities are thus "doubly hermeneutic". Natural scientists, however, are also using human products (such as scientific papers) which are products of preunderstanding (and can lead to, for example,

academic fraud An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

Contributing fields

Epistemology

Epistemological theories are the basic theories about how knowledge is obtained and are thus the most general theories about how to evaluate information sources. *

Empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...

evaluates sources by considering the observations (or sensations) on which they are based. Sources without basis in experience are not seen as valid. *

Rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...

provides low priority to sources based on observations. In order to be meaningful, observations must be explained by clear ideas or concepts. It is the logical structure and the well definedness that is in focus in evaluating information sources from the rationalist point of view. *

Historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

evaluates information sources on the basis of their reflection of their sociocultural context and their theoretical development. *

Pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

evaluate sources on the basis of how their values and usefulness to accomplish certain outcomes. Pragmatism is skeptical about claimed neutral information sources. The evaluation of knowledge or information sources cannot be more certain than is the construction of knowledge. If one accepts the principle of

fallibilism Originally, fallibilism (from Medieval Latin: ''fallibilis'', "liable to err") is the philosophical principle that Proposition, propositions can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or Justification (epistemology), justifie ...

then one also has to accept that source criticism can never 100% verify knowledge claims. As discussed in the next section, source criticism is intimately linked to

scientific method The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...

s. The presence of

fallacies A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves," in the construction of an argument which may appear stronger than it really is if the fallacy is not spotted. The term in the Western intellectual tradition was intr ...

of argument in sources is another kind of philosophical criterion for evaluating sources. Fallacies are presented by Walton (1998). Among the fallacies are the '' ad hominem'' fallacy (the use of personal attack to try to undermine or refute a person's argument) and the

straw man A straw man (sometimes written as strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false ...

fallacy (when one arguer misrepresents another's position to make it appear less plausible than it really is, in order more easily to criticize or refute it.)

Research methodology

Research methods are methods used to produce scholarly knowledge. The methods that are relevant for producing knowledge are also relevant for evaluating knowledge. An example of a book that turns methodology upside-down and uses it to evaluate produced knowledge is Katzer; Cook & Crouch (1998).

Science studies

Studies of quality evaluation processes such as

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

s and of the normative criteria used in evaluation of scientific and scholarly research. Another field is the study of

scientific misconduct Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research. A '' Lancet'' review on ''Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countrie ...

. Harris (1979) provides a case study of how a famous experiment in psychology,

Little Albert The Little Albert experiment was a controlled experiment showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. The study also provides an example of stimulus generalization. It was carried out by John B. Watson and his Doctoral stude ...

, has been distorted throughout the history of psychology, starting with the author (Watson) himself, general textbook authors, behavior therapists, and a prominent learning theorist. Harris proposes possible causes for these distortions and analyzes the Albert study as an example of myth making in the history of psychology. Studies of this kind may be regarded a special kind of

reception history Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the a ...

(how Watson's paper was received). It may also be regarded as a kind of critical history (opposed to ceremonial history of psychology, cf. Harris, 1980). Such studies are important for source criticism in revealing the bias introduced by referring to classical studies.

Textual criticism

Textual criticism (or broader: text philology) is a part of

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

, which is not just devoted to the study of texts, but also to edit and produce "scientific editions", "scholarly editions", "standard editions", "historical editions", "reliable editions", "reliable texts", "text editions" or "critical editions", which are editions in which careful scholarship has been employed to ensure that the information contained within is as close to the author's/composer's original intentions as possible (and which allows the user to compare and judge changes in editions published under influence by the author/composer). The relation between these kinds of works and the concept "source criticism" is evident in Danish, where they may be termed "kildekritisk udgave" (directly translated "source critical edition"). In other words, it is assumed that most editions of a given works is filled with noise and errors provided by publishers, why it is important to produce "scholarly editions". The work provided by text philology is an important part of source criticism in the humanities.

Psychology

The study of

eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is ...

is an important field of study used, among other purposes, to evaluate testimony in courts. The basics of eyewitness fallibility includes factors such as poor viewing conditions, brief exposure, and stress. More subtle factors, such as expectations, biases, and personal stereotypes can intervene to create erroneous reports. Loftus (1996) discuss all such factors and also shows that

eyewitness memory Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other dramatic event that he or she has witnessed. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system. It can also refer to an individual's memory for a face, where they a ...

is chronically inaccurate in surprising ways. An ingenious series of experiments reveals that memory can be radically altered by the way an eyewitness is questioned after the fact. New memories can be implanted and old ones unconsciously altered under interrogation. Anderson (1978) and Anderson & Pichert (1977) reported an elegant experiment demonstrating how change in perspective affected people's ability to recall information that was unrecallable from another perspective. In

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

the concept of

defence mechanism In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism (American English: defense mechanism), is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and o ...

is important and may be considered a contribution to the theory of source criticism because it explains psychological mechanisms, which distort the reliability of human information sources.

Library and information science (LIS)

In schools of

(LIS), source criticism is taught as part of the growing field of

information literacy The Association of College & Research Libraries defines information literacy as a "set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of inform ...

. Issues such as

relevance Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that makes it useful to consider the second topic when considering the first. The concept of relevance is studied in many different fields, including cognitive sci ...

, quality indicators for documents, kinds of documents and their qualities (e.g. scholarly editions) are studied in LIS and are relevant for source criticism.

Bibliometrics Bibliometrics is the use of statistical methods to analyse books, articles and other publications, especially in regard with scientific contents. Bibliometric methods are frequently used in the field of library and information science. Biblio ...

is often used to find the most influential journal, authors, countries and institutions. Librarians study

s and their function in evaluating books. In library and information science the checklist approach has often been used. A criticism of this approach is given by Meola (2004): "Chucking the checklist". Libraries sometimes provide advice on how their users may evaluate sources. The Library of Congress has a "Teaching with Primary Sources" (TPS) program.

Ethics

Source criticism is also about ethical behavior and culture. It is about a free press and an open society, including the protecting information sources from being persecuted (cf.,

Whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

In specific domains

Photos

Photos are often manipulated during wars and for political purposes. One well known example is Joseph Stalin's manipulation of a photograph from May 5, 1920, on which Stalin's predecessor Lenin held a speech for Soviet troops that Leon Trotsky attended. Stalin had later Trotsky retouched out of this photograph. (cf. King, 1997). A recent example is reported by Healy (2008) about North Korean leader

Kim Jong Il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

Internet sources

Much interest in evaluating Internet sources (such as

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

) is reflected in the scholarly literature of

and in other fields. Mintz (2002) is an edited volume about this issue. Examples of literature examining Internet sources include Chesney (2006), Fritch & Cromwell (2001), Leth & Thurén (2000) and Wilkinson, Bennett, & Oliver (1997).

Archaeology and history

"In history, the term historical method was first introduced in a systematic way in the sixteenth century by Jean Bodin in his treatise of source criticism, ''Methodus ad facilem historiarium cognitionem'' (1566). Characteristically, Bodin's treatise intended to establish the ways by which reliable knowledge of the past could be established by checking sources against one another and by so assessing the reliability of the information conveyed by them, relating them to the interests involved." (Lorenz, 2001, p. 6870). As written above, modern source criticism in history is closely associated with the German historian

(1795–1886), who influenced historical methods on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, although in rather different ways. American history developed in a more empirist and antiphilosophical way (cf., Novick, 1988). Two of the best-known rule books from the 19th century are Bernheim (1889) and Langlois & Seignobos (1898). These books provided a seven-step procedure (here quoted from Howell & Prevenier, 2001, p. 70–71): # If the sources all agree about an event, historians can consider the event proved. # However, majority does not rule; even if most sources relate events in one way, that version will not prevail unless it passes the test of critical textual analysis. # The source whose account can be confirmed by reference to outside authorities in some of its parts can be trusted in its entirety if it is impossible similarly to confirm the entire text. # When two sources disagree on a particular point, the historian will prefer the source with most "authority"—i.e. the source created by the expert or by the eyewitness. # Eyewitnesses are, in general, to be preferred, especially in circumstances where the ordinary observer could have accurately reported what transpired and, more specifically, when they deal with facts known by most contemporaries. # If two independently created sources agree on a matter, the reliability of each is measureably enhanced. # When two sources disagree (and there is no other means of evaluation), then historians take the source which seems to accord best with common sense. Gudmundsson (2007, p. 38) wrote: "Source criticism should not totally dominate later courses. Other important perspectives, for example, philosophy of history/view of history, should not suffer by being neglected" (Translated by BH). This quote makes a distinction between source criticism on the one hand and historical philosophy on the other hand. However, different views of history and different specific theories about the field being studied may have important consequences for how sources are selected, interpreted and used. Feminist scholars may, for example, select sources made by women and may interpret sources from a feminist perspective. Epistemology should thus be considered a part of source criticism. It is in particular related to "tendency analysis". In

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

is an important technique to establish the age of information sources. Methods of this kind were the ideal when history established itself as both a scientific discipline and as a profession based on "scientific" principles in the last part of the 1880s (although radiocarbon dating is a more recent example of such methods). The empiricist movement in history brought along both "source criticism" as a research method and also in many countries large scale publishing efforts to make valid editions of "source materials" such as important letters and official documents (e.g. as

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...

s or

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

s).

Historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

and

historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn ...

include the study of the reliability of the sources used, in terms of, for example, authorship, credibility of the author, and the authenticity or corruption of the text.

Biblical studies

Source criticism, as the term is used in

biblical criticism Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...

, refers to the attempt to establish the sources used by the author and/or redactor of the final text. The term "

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

" is occasionally used as a synonym. Biblical source criticism originated in the 18th century with the work of

Jean Astruc Jean Astruc (19 March 1684, in Sauve, France – 5 May 1766, in Paris) was a professor of medicine in France at Montpellier and Paris, who wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal diseases, and also, with a small anonymously publi ...

, who adapted the methods already developed for investigating the texts of classical antiquity (

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

in particular) to his own investigation into the sources of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

. It was subsequently considerably developed by German scholars in what was known as "the

higher criticism Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". While often discussed in terms of ...

", a term no longer in widespread use. The ultimate aim of these scholars was to reconstruct the history of the biblical text, as well as the religious history of ancient Israel. Related to source criticism is

redaction criticism Redaction criticism, also called ''Redaktionsgeschichte'', ''Kompositionsgeschichte'' or ''Redaktionstheologie'', is a critical method for the study of biblical texts. Redaction criticism regards the author of the text as editor (redactor) of the ...

which seeks to determine how and why the redactor (editor) put the sources together the way he did. Also related is

form criticism Form criticism as a method of biblical criticism classifies units of scripture by literary pattern and then attempts to trace each type to its period of oral transmission."form criticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica ...

and

tradition history Tradition history or tradition criticism is a methodology of biblical criticism that situates a text within a stream of a specific tradition in history and attempts to describe the development of the tradition over the course of time. Tradition cri ...

which try to reconstruct the oral prehistory behind the identified written sources.

Journalism

Journalists often work with strong time pressure and have access to only a limited number of information sources such as

news bureau A news bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate a geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; ' ...

s, persons which may be interviewed,

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s, journals and so on (see

journalism sourcing In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or knowledge other record or document that gives timely information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources". Examples of sources include but are not limited to officia ...

). Journalists' possibility for conducting serious source criticism is thus limited compared to, for example, historians' possibilities.

Legal studies

The most important legal sources are created by parliaments, governments, courts, and legal researchers. They may be written or informal and based on established practices. Views concerning the quality of sources differ among legal philosophies:

Legal positivism Legal positivism (as understood in the Anglosphere) is a school of thought of analytical jurisprudence developed largely by legal philosophers during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. While Bentham and Austin de ...

is the view that the text of the law should be considered in isolation, while

legal realism Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law. It is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, i.e., rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world. Legal realists be ...

interpretivism (legal) Interpretivism is a school of thought in contemporary jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. Overview The main claims of interpretivism are that *Law is not a set of given data, conventions or physical facts, but what lawyers aim to construc ...

critical legal studies Critical legal studies (CLS) is a school of critical theory that developed in the United States during the 1970s.Alan Hunt, "The Theory of Critical Legal Studies," Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1986): 1-45, esp. 1, 5. Se DOI, 10.1 ...

and feminist legal criticism interprets the law on a broader cultural basis.

Notes

References

* American Library Association (1994) ''Evaluating Information: A Basic Checklist''. Brochure. American Library Association * Anderson, Richard C. (1978). Schema-directed processes in language comprehension. IN: ''NATO International Conference on Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, 1977, Amsterdam: Cognitive Psychology and Instruction.'' Ed. by A. M. Lesgold, J. W. Pellegrino, S. D. Fokkema & R. Glaser. New York: Plenum Press (pp. 67–82). * Anderson, Richard C. & Pichert, J. W. (1977). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift of perspective. Urbana, Il: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, April. 1977. (Technical Report 41). Available in full-text from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/31/83/58.pdf * Bazerman, Charles (1995). ''The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines''. 5th ed. Houghton Mifflin. * Bee, Ronald E. (1983). Statistics and Source Criticism. ''

Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international ...

'', Volume 33, Number 4, 483–488. * Beecher-Monas, Erica (2007). ''Evaluating scientific evidence : an interdisciplinary framework for intellectual due process''. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. * Bernheim, Ernst (1889). ''Lehrbuch der Historischen Methode und der Geschichtsphilosophie'' uidebook for Historical Method and the Philosophy of History Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. * Brundage, Anthony (2007). ''Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing, 4th Ed''. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc. (3rd edition, 1989 cited in text above). * Chesney, T. (2006). An empirical examination of Wikipedia's credibility. First Monday, 11(11), URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_11/chesney/index.html * Encyclopædia Britannica (2006). Fatally Flawed. Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature. http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Nature's response March 23, 2006: http://www.nature.com/press_releases/Britannica_response.pdf * Engeldinger, Eugene A. (1988) ''Bibliographic Instruction and Critical Thinking: The Contribution of the Annotated Bibliography''. Research Quarterly, Vol. 28, Winter, p. 195–202 * Engeldinger, Eugene A. (1998) ''Technology Infrastructure and Information Literacy''. Library Philosophy and Practice Vol. 1, No. 1 * Fritch, J. W., & Cromwell, R. L. (2001). Evaluating Internet resources: Identity, affiliation, and cognitive authority in a networked world. ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52'', 499–507. * Gerhart, Susan L. (2004)
Do Web search engines suppress controversy?
''First Monday 9''(1). * * Gudmundsson, David (2007). ''När kritiska elever är målet. Att undervisa i källkritik på gymnasiet. hen the Goal is Critical Students. Teaching Source Criticism in Upper Secondary School'' Malmö, Sweden: Malmö högskola
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* Hardtwig, W. (2001). Ranke, Leopold von (1795–1886). IN: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.) ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences''. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (12738–12741). * Harris, Ben (1979). Whatever Happened to Little Albert? American Psychologist, 34, 2, pp. 151–160
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* Harris, Ben (1980). Ceremonial versus critical history of psychology. American Psychologist, 35(2), 218–219. (Note). * Healy, Jack (2008). Was the Dear Leader Photoshopped In? November 7, 2008, 2:57 pm resident Kim Jong Il, North Korea http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/was-the-dear-leader-photoshopped-in/?scp=7&sq=Kim%20Jong-il&st=cse * Hjørland, Birger (2008)
Source criticism
In: Epistemological Lifeboat. Ed. by Birger Hjørland & Jeppe Nicolaisen. * Howell, Martha & Prevenier, Walter (2001). ''From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. . * Katzer, Jeffrey; Cook, Kenneth H. & Crouch, Wayne W. (1998). ''Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research''. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. * King, David (1997) ''The Commissar Vanishes: the falsification of photographs and art in Stalin's Russia''. Metropolitan Books, New York. * Langlois, Charles-Victor & Seignobos, Charles (1898). ''Introduction aux études historiques'' ntroduction to the Study of History Paris: Librairie Hachette.
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''Introduction to the Study of History''
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* Leth, Göran & Thurén, Torsten (2000)
Källkritik för internet
. Stockholm: Styrelsen för Psykologiskt Försvar. (Retrieved 2007-11-30). * Loftus, Elizabeth F. (1996). ''Eyewitness Testimony''. Revised edition Cambridge, MA: Harward University Press. (Original edition:1979). * Lorenz, C. (2001). History: Theories and Methods. IN: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.) ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.'' Amsterdam: Elsevier. (Pp. 6869–6876). * Mathewson, Daniel B. (2002). A critical binarism: Source criticism and deconstructive criticism. ''

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament The ''Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'' (JSOT) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of Biblical studies. The editors-in-chief are David Shepherd (Trinity College Dublin) and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer ( Örebro School of Theol ...

'' no98, pp. 3–28. Abstract: When classifying the array of interpretive methods currently available, biblical critics regularly distinguish between historical-critical methods, on the one hand, and literary critical methods, on the other. Frequently, methods on one side of the divide are said to be antagonistic to certain methods on the other. This article examines two such presumed antagonistic methods, source criticism and deconstructive criticism, and argues that they are not, in fact, antagonistic, but similar: both are postmodern movements, and both share an interpretive methodology (insofar as it is correct to speak of a deconstructive methodology). This argument is illustrated with a source-critical and a deconstructive reading of Exodus 14. * Mattus, Maria (2007). Finding Credible Information: A Challenge to Students Writing Academic Essays. ''Human IT 9''(2), 1–28. Retrieved 2007-09-04 from

* * Mintz, Anne P. (ed.). (2002). ''Web of deception. Misinformation on the Internet''. Medford, NJ: Information Today. * Müller, Philipp (2009). Understanding history: Hermeneutics and source-criticism in historical scholarship. IN: Dobson, Miriam & Ziemann, Benjamin (eds): ''Reading primary sources. The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth-century history''. London: Routledge (pp. 21–36). * Olden-Jørgensen, Sebastian (2001). ''Til Kilderne: Introduktion til Historisk Kildekritik'' (in Danish). 'To the sources: Introduction to historical source criticism'' København: Gads Forlag. . * Reinfandt, Christohp (2009). Reading texts after the linguistic turn: approaches from literary studies and their implementation. IN: Dobson, Miriam & Ziemann, Benjamin (eds): ''Reading primary sources. The interpretation of texts from nineteenth and twentieth-century history''. London: Routledge (pp. 37–54). * Rieh, S. Y. (2002). Judgment of information quality and cognitive authority in the Web. ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53''(2), 145–161. https://web.archive.org/web/20090731152623/http://www.si.umich.edu/rieh/papers/rieh_jasist2002.pdf * Rieh, S. Y. (2005). Cognitive authority. I: K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & E. F. McKechnie (Eds.), ''Theories of information behavior: A researchers' guide'' . Medford, NJ: Information Today (pp. 83–87). https://web.archive.org/web/20080512170752/http://newweb2.si.umich.edu/rieh/papers/rieh_IBTheory.pdf * Rieh, Soo Young & Danielson, David R. (2007). Credibility: A multidisciplinary framework. ''Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41'', 307–364. * Riegelman, Richard K. (2004). ''Studying a Study and Testing a Test: How to Read the Medical Evidence. 5th ed''. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. * Savolainen, R. (2007). Media credibility and cognitive authority. The case of seeking orienting information. ''Information Research, 12''(3) paper 319. Available at https://web.archive.org/web/20180416064908/http://www.informationr.net/ir///12-3/paper319.html * Slife, Brent D. & Williams, R. N. (1995). ''What's behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ("A Consumers Guide to the Behavioral Sciences"). * Taylor, John (1991). ''War photography; realism in the British press''. London : Routledge. * Thurén, Torsten. (1997). ''Källkritik''. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. * Walton, Douglas (1998). Fallacies. IN: ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Version 1.0, London: Routledge * Webb, E J; Campbell, D T; Schwartz, R D & Sechrest, L (2000). ''Unobtrusive measures''; revised edition. Sage Publications Inc. * * Wilkinson, G.L., Bennett, L.T., & Oliver, K.M. (1997). Evaluation criteria and indicators of quality for Internet resources. ''Educational Technology, 37''(3), 52–59. * Wilson, Patrick (1983). ''Second-Hand Knowledge. An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.

External links

The Source Compass: Source Criticism

{{DEFAULTSORT:Source Criticism Error Library science Literary criticism Scientific method Scientific misconduct Skepticism Sources Information science