Open AccessWhat kind of sources do I need? Critical search for information on the Web
Author(s) -
Martha Vidal-Sepúlveda,
AUTHOR_ID,
Cristian Olivares-Rodríguez,
Luis Cárcamo Ulloa,
AUTHOR_ID,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
information research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.397
H-Index - 49
ISSN - 1368-1613
DOI - 10.47989/irpaper913
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , critical thinking , elaboration , the internet , ranking (information retrieval) , quality (philosophy) , task (project management) , computer science , psychology , information quality , information needs , knowledge management , world wide web , information system , mathematics education , information retrieval , social psychology , engineering , philosophy , electrical engineering , systems engineering , epistemology , humanities
. Previous studies have shown that students have a high confidence in search engines. This poses a significant risk in learning processes if students do not have critical skills for document selection. This study provides clues about the quality of the information sources that university students access in their internet searches, and highlights critical thinking as a key competence in personalised information searches. Method. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with a sample of fifty-eight university students who solved four information tasks. The sources were categorised according to the quality of their editorial process. Analysis. We stress the critical thinking in a realistic study regarding to both the interactions of university students with not enough validated sources and the type of information task working with. Results. The main finding of this study is that students mostly access to sources with a corporate publisher (52.9%) and alternative sources (40%). Consequently, the publisher type of the source is not related to the ranking elaboration. Conclusions. The greater access to information does not ensure the quality or veracity of it, confirming the need to promote the development of critical thinking.