Ensuring your Learning Resources are reliable and appropriate
It is important that the learning materials and resources you choose to
use (websites, articles, studies, videos, etc.) are suitable, reliable,
relevant and from recognised providers. This helps ensure that the
learning you do is evidence-based, up to date and the content is of an
appropriate educational and/or practical standard and suitable for what
you want to achieve.
Think about each resource you use, whether it is an online or print
journal article, a website, a book, a newspaper article, or any other
source. Use the questions in this guide to analyse materials and to
assess how appropriate they will be for your learning.
When evaluating a learning resource, look at:
Who is providing the material?

What is their background & credentials? What makes the author an expert? Look for names of
people with authority in the subject, not just organisations. What else have they written? Use a
general search engine (e.g. Google) to see what else they have written and if others have cited
them.

Are they affiliated with a reputable university, business, or organisation? What is their role within
the organisation? Check the associated site to confirm their status. What are the basic values or
goals of the organisation? (Look at the “About us” link on most websites). Do they provide any
contact details?

If you cannot identify the author, then think twice about using it as a resource.

If you plan to learn from pharmacist colleagues, are they are suitably qualified or experienced?
What is the quality of the content?

Is the information appear to be valid and based on sound medical research or is it unsupported
by evidence? Can the information on the web page be verified by another source? Are these
sources reliable? Avoid discussion forums as learning resources and be particularly wary with
blog posts that seem to be factually correct, but don’t link to their sources.

Are there footnotes, bibliographies, or references to respected
journals/sources so that you can verify the information, and are
these reliable? A bibliography, along with footnotes, indicate that
the author has consulted other sources and serves to
authenticate the information that they are presenting. In
websites, expect links or footnotes documenting sources, and
referring to additional resources and other viewpoints. (a citation
to Reader’s Digest magazine does not have the same weight as
an article from JAMA )

Is the content fact and evidence-based or author’s opinion or
sponsored? Is the author's point of view objective and impartial?
Skilled writers can make you think their opinions are facts.
Are the ideas and arguments advanced more or less in line with other works you have read on
the same topic? Many publications have a particular bias or agenda, which may not be
immediately obvious. Think about the author’s motivation - are they trying to inform and explain;
or are they trying to sell or promote a product? Is the language used free of emotion-arousing
words and bias?
Is the author connected to an organisation that might influence their treatment of the topic? Are
alternative views considered? Has anything been deliberately left out? A good source will be fair,
balanced, and objective.

Who is the intended audience (children, consumers, the general public, students, academics,
experts)? Is the content suitable? Oversimplified or generalised information may not be
appropriate.Is any advertising sponsoring the website or article clearly marked? Can you tell if the
information you are reading is advertisement? What kind of institution is providing the
sponsorship? A pharmaceutical company? A non-profit organisation?

If the resource is a website, how credible and authentic are the links to other resources? Are they
evaluated or annotated in any way? Do all of the links work? Dead links indicate a poorly
maintained site. Look for links to reliable supporting evidence and quality sources. Do other
reputable sites provide links to the site? To find out, go to Google and type link: followed by the
URL of the site you want to know about (e.g. link:http://www.abc.org.nz). If you don’t find any
links, the site may be very new, or it may not be well thought of by other experts.
Currency of Information (date, edition, revision)

What is the publication date or when was it last revised or up-dated? This date is often located on
the face of the title page below the name of the publisher. If it is not there, look for the copyright
date on the reverse of the title page. A well designed website should display the date it was
created, published, modified, updated, or revised (usually at the bottom of the home page,
sometimes every page).

Avoid using undated websites and undated factual or statistical information should never be
used. To check when a page was last modified, type: javascript:alert(document.lastModified)
in the address bar. Some search engines (http://gigablast.com) tell you when a page was
published or modified.

Is the source current or out-of-date for the topic? Has there been more recent research on the
subject? What was published a year ago may be outdated now. Is this a first edition of this
publication or not? Further editions indicate a source has been revised and updated to reflect
changes in knowledge and include previous omissions.
Using the Internet
The internet provides extensive access to all kinds of
material including journals, bulletins and guidelines.
Don’t expect to get a fully comprehensive collection of
information from one source, just as you wouldn’t be
able to in a library.
Content on the Internet is unregulated; anyone can
publish anything on the Internet. There is a wealth of
sound, evidenced based information as well as sites
containing incorrect, biased and misleading
information. You need to be able to tell the difference.
A couple of useful references are:

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask (UC Berkeley - Teaching
Library Internet Workshops) www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet (An excellent guide from the Milton Library at
Johns Hopkins University)
www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating
The URL can tell you a lot about a site and give you
clues to the organisation and their location.
A person’s name or a tilde (~) symbol, a percent sign (
% ), or the words "users," "members," or "people." in
the URL indicate a personal site. (Compare an address
like med.harvard.edu/~jsmith/headache to
med.harvard.edu/neurology/headache)
Personal pages are not necessarily "bad," or contain
incorrect information but you need to investigate the
author carefully. For personal pages, there is no
publisher or domain owner vouching for the information
in the page.
The Domain (.edu; .com; .ac; .org; .net) can
tell you about the source of the site eg .edu or
.ac is usually an educational institution, .org a
non-profit organization and .co or .com a
commercial enterprise.
Many country codes, such as .us, .uk and .nz,
are no longer tightly controlled and may be
misused. Think about if the domain extension
appropriate for the content.
Does the website have a HON code or other certification?
The Health On the Net Foundation (HON) promotes and guides the
use of reliable online health information, and its appropriate and
efficient use. The HONcode is a code of ethics including a minimum
set of standards to provide quality, objective and transparent medical
information tailored to the needs of the audience.
A set of criteria has been established to review and compare a health
website and includes privacy, transparency, attribution and authority.
When a website meets and exceeds those criteria, it is provided with
a credential, a logo, and a way to prove that credential has been
awarded and the criteria met.
HON cannot guarantee the accuracy of medical information
presented by a site and its completeness at any given time, but
possession of the HONcode seal allows a site to demonstrate its
intention to contribute to quality medical information by publishing
objective and transparent information.
Regular monitoring:
A certified site receives a check-up visit periodically, beginning one
year after the initial certification, following a complaint, technical
malfunction detected by monitoring services.
The Information Standard is an independent certification programme
that is commissioned by NHS England for all organisations producing
evidence-based health and care information for the public.
Any organisation achieving The Information Standard has undergone a
rigorous assessment to check that the information they produce is
clear, accurate, balanced, evidence-based and up-to-date.