Authority
Who wrote it?
Who published it?
Whether you have the book in hand or you're using it online, sleuth around for biographical information about the author. Often, there's a short biography on the book cover; if not, look at the beginning or end of the book.
Look for the author's credentials and expertise in the subject.
An author with good credentials can lead you to more information. Locate other articles or books by the author to get more insight into the extent of his knowledge and experience in the topic he covers in his book.
find information about the author:
- Search the author's name in a library catalog or periodicals database.
- Search the author's name in Google Books, Google Scholar or Amazon.com
- Search the author's name in a search engine, but be careful: make sure you're looking at the author you want, and not someone with the same name.
find information about the Publisher
A publisher's credentials can provide clues about the reliability of a source. The easiest way to locate information about a publisher is to use Google Books: