6.3: What is Timeliness?

[Stonewall Inn Nightclub Raid Crowd Attempts to Impede Police, 1969, public domain image]

Definition: Timeliness

A measure of how well the time of publication or creation of your information source is for meeting your information need.

Put simply, timeliness refers to how appropriate the publication/creation date of your source is for meeting your information need. Depending on your research task you may need information published at different times. For example, if you are conducting research into the historical Stonewall Riots (pictured above), then a photograph from 1969 can be a useful primary source document for you.

However, if you are researching something more current such as training requirements for nurses; using a source that is too old will only give you outdated information. It's important to ensure that the age of your information matches the need. Even for historical research you may want more updated sources that have had time to reflect on and provide context for the primary sources created in that time period. In some fields, such as medicine, you will want to rely on very current sources (usually published within the last 3-5 years).

When evaluating your source, ask yourself the following questions about timeliness:

• When was this information published and last updated?
• Is the information current enough for your topic?
• Have there been more recent discoveries or developments since this information was published?

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