1.3 Evaluating the results of the search

Table of Contents

1. Validity of information
2. Reliability criteria
   1. Expertise and reputation
   2. Lack of bias
   3. Opposing views
   4. Equal emphasis
   5. Accuracy
   6. Currency
   7. Establishing currency
   8. Indirect methods of establishing currency
3. Measuring the success of a search
4. Structuring and saving of search results

Opposing views

The following example sites were available at the time of the latest review of this section.

• Opposing views on keeping a monkey as a house pet can be found at Monkeyzonehttp://www.monkeyzone.com/ and at http://www.animaland.org/asp/realissues/exotics.asp the website of Animal Land.
• Opposing views on the need for the UK Monarchy can be found at the official UK Monarchy site at http://www.royal.gov.uk and a Marxist perspective at http://www.marxist.org.uk/
• Opposing views on the greenness of nuclear fuel can be found at the Greenpeace website http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/ and that of the World Nuclear Associationhttp://www.world-nuclear.org/
• Opposing views on the usefulness of homeopathy at the site of the British Homeopathic Association at http://www.trusthomeopathy.org/ and the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) Position Paper on Homeopathy found at http://www.ncahf.org/pp/homeop.html

Although the exercise and the results may seem a little trivial, it is useful. The problem when you are faced with queries about these sort of contentious issues is that you will initially retrieve a site as a result of your information search which gives only one side of the case. You must then search for the opposite, just as you have done here.

Now let's look at the issue of Equal emphasis...