Issues in social science research

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Political bias

• Know what your source is, and evaluate how reliable and "objective" you think it is. Keep in mind if the author or authors are from industry, the government, academia, consumer advocacy groups, etc. What might their biases be? It can be useful to do a "whois" search to find out who is hosting a website where information is found.

Using internet sources

• Verify information in multiple sources when possible.
• Evaluating Internet Research Sources A little pedantic, but raises useful points for someone starting to do internet research on controversial topics.
• "It can be useful to do a "whois" search to find out who is hosting a website where information is found. Industry propoganda sites must be understood to be such.""