Read the following scenario: A student is researching information on Christopher Columbus for a history project. In looking up information about his trip to the New World, the student finds two conflicting pieces of information from two different sources. Source A: This source comes from a local community college. It is an essay written by a history student regarding Christopher Columbus. The student lists references for the information but does not provide contact information or links to the references. Source B: This source comes from an internationally known encyclopedia. The site lists the authors of the article and provides references for the information that readers can link to. There are a couple of ads on the site, but no pop-ups and the ads are not distracting.

Which of the sources is most reliable and why?

Source A is most reliable because it was published by a local community college and is free of advertisements.

Source B is most reliable because it gives information on the author and has references that readers can check.

Source A is most reliable because it was written by a college student who probably has more recent and up-to-date information.

Source B is most reliable because the encyclopedia is internationally known and doesn’t contain pop-up ads.