Online Learning Support

Some sources, especially websites, are often undated. Investigate the source carefully to determine an approximate date of publication. Here are some tips:

• If looking at a print source like a magazine or journal, see if you can determine what year the source was published.
• For online sources, look for comments from other readers. When were they published? Do they give you an approximate date that the comment was posted? Look for the olderst comment. 
• Examine the text. Look for dates or references to events that will give you a clue as to when the article was published. For example, if the text says "After President Trump's election," you can conclude that the article was written sometime after November of 2016. You can't really determine the exact date, but you have an approximate date. Some articles will mention a study or another article written on a specific date so that will give you another clue.
• Do not trust dates provided by citation creators. They are usually not correct. If a citation creator provides a date for a source with no date, you definitely do not want to use it. 

Find Out More

• Fighting Fake News: Evaluating
• How old should my sources be?

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