Ellen is an anthropologist who has been working at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania for the past six months. She has been conducting research on the Internet. She finds a Web site with an article that proposes a revolutionary theory regarding human migration patterns from east-central Africa that may have occurred about 150,000 years ago. Ellen wants to determine whether the information is valid before she presents it to her fellow anthropologists for consideration.Ellen performs the following tasks: She obtains information about the organization on whose Web site the article was presented. Based on the domain name, Ellen determines that the organization is an educational institution. She researches other organizations recommended by the Web site containing the article by following some of the links. She finds that the sites are hosted by trustworthy sources known in her field. She checks the credentials of the author and determines that he is a known professional in anthropology who has published reputable works. She accesses current scholarly writings and professional journals and finds that this new and exciting theory has the support of other anthropologists. Ellen feels comfortable presenting the information she found to her fellow anthropologists because she knows it is valid.
What other ways can Ellen evaluate the information presented in the article to determine its legitimacy? Because various other resources have cited the theory, does Ellen still need to cite her source when sharing the information? Which source(s) should she cite? what might she have instead found that could have indicated the information was not valid?