Evaluating Sources: Date (or Currency)

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Evaluating Sources Using Date (or Currency)

Vocabulary

  • Date/Currency
  • Seminal works

The date a source was published can be important. For example, in the sciences, findings can change drastically in short periods of time, so you will want to have the most current information. For instance, if you want to know what the most recent innovations are in cancer treatment, looking at findings from the last couple of years is the best strategy. This is where the currency of the information comes in. How current, or recent information is can have a significant impact on how useful or valuable the information you are using is. 

On the other hand, some sources may remain authoritative even though they are older. These sources may be referred to as key theories or "seminal works Links to an external site." which represent the starting point of a new discipline, or the jumping-off point of a new way of looking at a problem.

Older sources can also provide a historical overview of your topic. An example is Alan Turing's article, "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis," in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, 237B, 37-72, 14 August 1952.

While Turing’s article is now quite old, it is still being written about as a key area of Turing’s work (see, for example, Cooper and Van Leeuwen, 2013 Links to an external site. ; Ball, 2015 Links to an external site. , and Copeland et al., 2017 Links to an external site. ), and cited in new research papers Links to an external site. related to morphogenesis today. 

Questions to ask yourself about the date of a source to evaluate it critically:

  • Is there a date stating when the source was originally created?

  • Is it clear when the source was last updated, revised, or edited?

  • Are there any indications that the material is updated frequently or consistently to ensure the currency of the content?

  • If it is a website or webpage, are links to other websites current?

  • If a source is older, has it been cited by others? How many times?

  • Would this topic have very current updates I should be aware of?

Activity

  1. Let’s apply date/currency to our Royal BC Museum video. Indigenous language revitalization is a current and constantly changing topic. So, the date or currency of the information can have a significant impact on how you evaluate the information you are finding. Look at the video again and see if you can answer the following questions about date/currency, and consider what that might tell you about the source and perhaps what else you should be looking for if you were exploring this topic.  
  • Can you see the date when this information was created or published?
  • Has the information been updated or revised since then, either in a video or on the museum’s website?
  • What do these dates, if available tell you about the value of the information for you right now? Is this information still relevant to you?

(Need the worksheet? Evaluating Sources Worksheet Download Evaluating Sources Worksheet)

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