Credibility Evaluation Research Articles

Effects of misinformation on COVID-19 individual responses and recommendations for resilience of disastrous consequences of misinformation

The proliferation of misinformation on social media platforms is faster than the spread of Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19) and it can generate hefty deleterious consequences on health amid a disaster like COVID-19. Drawing upon research on the stimulus-response theory (hypodermic needle theory) and the resilience theory, this study tested a conceptual framework considering general misinformation belief, conspiracy belief, and religious misinformation belief as the stimulus; and credibility evaluations as resilience strategy; and their effects on COVID-19 individual responses. Using a self-administered online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study obtained 483 useable responses and after test, finds that all-inclusive, the propagation of misinformation on social media undermines the COVID-19 individual responses. Particularly, credibility evaluation of misinformation strongly predicts the COVID-19 individual responses with positive influences and religious misinformation beliefs as well as conspiracy beliefs and general misinformation beliefs come next and influence negatively. The findings and general recommendations will help the public, in general, to be cautious about misinformation, and the respective authority of a country, in particular, for initiating proper safety measures about disastrous misinformation to protect the public health from being exploited.

Incorporating message format into user evaluation of microblog information credibility: A nonlinear perspective

The spreading of misinformation and disinformation is a great problem on microblogs, leading user evaluation of information credibility a critical issue. This study incorporates two message format factors related to multimedia usage on microblogs (vividness and multimedia diagnosticity) with two well-discussed factors for information credibility (i.e., argument quality and source credibility) as a holistic framework to investigate user evaluation of microblog information credibility. Further, the study draws on two-factor theory and its variant three-factor lens to explain the nonlinear effects of the above factors on microblog information credibility. An online survey was conducted to test the proposed framework by collecting data from microblog users. The research findings reveal that for the effects on microblog information credibility: (1) argument quality (a hygiene factor) exerts a decreasing incremental effect; (2) source credibility (a bivalent factor) exerts only a linear effect; and (3) multimedia diagnosticity (a motivating factor) exerts an increasing incremental effect. This study adds to current knowledge about information credibility by proposing an insightful framework to understand the key predictors of microblog information credibility and further examining the nonlinear effects of these predictors.

Web-Based Health Information Following the Renewal of the Cervical Screening Program in Australia: Evaluation of Readability, Understandability, and Credibility.

BackgroundThree main changes were implemented in the Australian National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) in December 2017: an increase in the recommended age to start screening, extended screening intervals, and change from the Papanicolaou (Pap) test to primary human papillomavirus screening (cervical screening test). The internet is a readily accessible source of information to explain the reasons for these changes to the public. It is important that web-based health information about changes to national screening programs is accessible and understandable for the general population.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate Australian web-based resources that provide information about the changes to the cervical screening program.MethodsThe term cervical screening was searched in 3 search engines. The first 10 relevant results across the first 3 pages of each search engine were selected. Overall, 2 authors independently evaluated each website for readability (Flesch Reading Ease [FRE], Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook [SMOG] index), quality of information (Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool [PEMAT] for printable materials), credibility (Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA] benchmark criteria and presence of Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct [HONcode] certification), website design, and usability with 5 simulation questions to assess the relevance of information. A descriptive analysis was conducted for the readability measures, PEMAT, and the JAMA benchmark criteria.ResultsOf the 49 websites identified in the search, 15 were eligible for inclusion. The consumer-focused websites were classed as fairly difficult to read (mean FRE score 51.8, SD 13.3). The highest FRE score (easiest to read) was 70.4 (Cancer Council Australia Cervical Screening Consumer Site), and the lowest FRE score (most difficult to read) was 33.0 (NCSP Clinical Guidelines). A total of 9 consumer-focused websites and 4 health care provider–focused websites met the recommended threshold (sixth to eighth grade; SMOG index) for readability. The mean PEMAT understandability scores were 87.7% (SD 6.0%) for consumer-focused websites and 64.9% (SD 13.8%) for health care provider–focused websites. The mean actionability scores were 58.1% (SD 19.1%) for consumer-focused websites and 36.7% (SD 11.0%) for health care provider–focused websites. Moreover, 9 consumer-focused and 3 health care provider–focused websites scored above 70% for understandability, and 2 consumer-focused websites had an actionability score above 70%. A total of 3 websites met all 4 of the JAMA benchmark criteria, and 2 websites displayed the HONcode.ConclusionsIt is important for women to have access to information that is at an appropriate reading level to better understand the implications of the changes to the cervical screening program. These findings can help health care providers direct their patients toward websites that provide information on cervical screening that is written at accessible reading levels and has high understandability.

Promoting sixth graders’ credibility evaluation of Web pages: An intervention study

This study investigated whether a teacher-led intervention program on online inquiry improved sixth graders' performance in a credibility evaluation task. Students (N = 342) were divided into two conditions, an intervention group (190 students) and a control group (152 students). The intervention program (21 × 45 min lessons) was implemented during a six-week course as a part of normal schoolwork. The program included explicit teaching of online inquiry skills: searching for information (3 lessons), evaluating credibility of information (3 lessons), and synthesizing information (3 lessons). In addition, the skills taught were applied in two online inquiry projects comprising 12 lessons in total. The control group received business-as-usual teaching. Students’ performance in the credibility evaluation task was measured before and after the program by pre- and post-tests. In these tests, students evaluated three Web pages dealing with two topics (Computer Gaming or Reading on Screen) varying in their perspectives and argumentation. Students rated the credibility of each Web page and justified their ratings. Topic order was counterbalanced in both conditions. The background variables (Pre-test scores, Reading comprehension, Reading fluency, Gender, Topic order, and Test order in the pre-test) were controlled for in the multilevel negative binomial regression analysis. The results showed that the intervention program helped students better justify their credibility ratings by reference to source features but not to the argumentation or other aspects of the content compared to controls. Instructional implications of the findings are discussed.

Credibility evaluation of scientific information on websites: Designing and evaluating an exploratory model

The present study aimed to develop a literature-based and expert-modified model for credibility evaluation of scientific web information in order to be used for academic purposes by utilizing a mixed heuristic method. First, meta-synthesis was applied to design a conceptual model. In terms of its usability, the model was evaluated by a sample of student users in five top universities of Iran. The data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 and LISREL 8.7 for Structural Equation Modelling. Based on the seven-stage meta-synthesis, a conceptual model, including 68 indicators, 14 components, and two main dimensions was identified. The model was confirmed by the sample experts by considering the high degree of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and the agreement percentage of most dimensions of the model which were 0.67 and higher than 90%, respectively. Next, the results of confirmatory factor analysis were analyzed according to the structural model and indices related to the goodness of fit in order to ensure a high quality respecting measuring the identified variables. Based on data analysis, the variables were of high quality in the studied context although there were some differences among the dimensions. The results further revealed that credibility evaluation is a concept with different and multiple dimensions and components suitable for users, designers, and policymakers which should be considered in designing and evaluating web resources.

External auditors' evaluation of a management's expert's credibility: Evidence from Australia

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has concerns that auditors are not adequately evaluating the reliability of the work of management's experts (MEs). We interviewed nine experienced auditors to understand how auditors evaluate MEs. We observe that some factors specified by auditing standards, such as an ME's competency in accounting standards, geographical location of the subject matter or the ME, and the sourcing of an ME play a minor role in an auditor's evaluation of an ME's credibility. In contrast, the reputation of an ME's firm is a key determinant. Auditors corroborate information from multiple sources, but verify only the ME's professional qualification. We identify three potential reasons for the ASIC's concerns: “Experts are considered cognitive authorities,” “Documentation is the key,” and “Move from a risk‐based approach to a checklist approach.”

Subject Evaluation with Chinese Characteristics: Changes, Confusion and Outlet—Take China University Subject Rankings (CUSR) for an Example

The ranking of subjects is attracting more and more attention from the government, universities and society in China. As the most representative and credible subject evaluation in China, China University Subject Rankings (CUSR) has carried out four rounds since the first round in 2002. Its evaluation purpose, evaluation content, evaluation main body, evaluation indicators and the use of evaluation results have also been gradually developing, revising and adjusting, becoming more detailed, multi-dimensional and optimized. With the influence of the subject evaluation, the number of participating subjects, and social attention increasing, CUSR is faced with several practical problems of being alienated in the process of specific operation and application of results: the evaluation itself is regarded as the purpose; the nature of the evaluation is disputed; the appeal for the scientificity of the evaluation indicators is improved; and the evaluation result deviates from the original intention. In order to better meet the strategic needs of national development and the practical needs of university development, the optimization path of subject evaluation is to build Chinese characteristics and realize Sinification, continuously improve the scientificity and credibility, actively learn from international experience and expand international influence, so as to serve subject construction and development, and promote the overall improvement of the academic degrees and graduate education in China.

Nudge Effect of Fact-Check Alerts: Source Influence and Media Skepticism on Sharing of News Misinformation in Social Media

This study extends the nudge principle with media effects and credibility evaluation perspectives to examine whether the effectiveness of fact-check alerts to deter news sharing on social media is moderated by news source and whether this moderation is conditional upon users’ skepticism of mainstream media. Results from a 2 (nudge: fact-check alert vs. no alert) × 2 (news source: legacy mainstream vs. unfamiliar non-mainstream) ( N = 929) experiment controlling for individual issue involvement, online news involvement, and news sharing experience revealed significant main and interaction effects from both factors. News sharing likelihood was overall lower for non-mainstream news than mainstream news, but showed a greater decrease for mainstream news when nudged. No conditional moderation from media skepticism was found; instead, users’ skepticism of mainstream media amplified the nudge effect only for news from legacy mainstream media and not unfamiliar non-mainstream source. Theoretical and practical implications on the use of fact-checking and mainstream news sources in social media are discussed.

An Enterprise Credit Evaluation Method for Power Grid Service Providers Based on Block Chain is Presented

As the main content of credit investigation, credit management is an important part of enterprise operation management, and it plays a dominant role in the management of enterprise personnel, funds, contracts, bidding and other management. The management of credit is essentially the management of data. Traditional credit investigation agencies collect user data through various technical means and establish a credit investigation management database. However, the reliability of data obtained in this way is not guaranteed. The emergence of blockchain theoretically solves the problem of data reliability, and provides a new method for credit investigation, but it can not guarantee the authenticity of the data itself, that is, the nodes that get the accounting can upload the fake data content to the blockchain without verifying the data content itself. How to reduce the damage caused by this uncertainty to the operation and management of enterprises is a major scientific problem that urgently needs to be solved.Therefore, this paper will make research on the consensus mechanism supporting the reliability of data content and the data standardization technology of uploading to blockchain. The main research content includes: 1. Propose a dynamic weight voting consensus mechanism based on incentive mechanism; 2. Propose the standardization technology of data uploading to block chain based on smart contract.The proposal of two technologies provides theoretical support for the authenticity and standardization of blockchain data content. Finally, taking the power grid bidding management as an example, based on the consensus mechanism and the standardization technology of data uploading to block chain proposed in this paper, construct a power grid service provider credibility evaluation model.

Reduction of the Body Weight-adapted Volume of Contrast Material by Increasing the Injection Rate in 320-detector Row Coronary CT Angiography

Background: 320-detector row dynamic volume computed tomography (CT) scanner was widely applied in coronary CT angiography (CCTA)，which made it possible to reduce the volume of contrast material (CM) used. Some studies have reported the feasibility of reducing the CM in 320-detector row CCTA using a weight-adapted injection protocol. However, it hasn't been studied to investigate what was the significance of increasing the injection rate with a lower volume of CM. Objective: To investigate the feasibility of reducing the body weight-adapted volume of CM by increasing the injection rate in 320-detector row CCTA. Methods: A total of 116 patients who underwent 320-detector row CCTA were divided into three groups. Group A received 0.7 ml/kg of CM (350 mg I/ml) at an injection rate of 5.0 ml/s (<i>n</i> = 40); group B received 0.6 ml/kg of CM at 5.5 ml/s (<i>n</i> = 39); group C received 0.5 ml/kg of CM at 6.0 ml/s (<i>n</i> = 37). A 30-ml 0.9% saline chaser was administered after the CM. Enhancement values of the cardiovascular territories and coronary arteries were measured and compared. Image quality was also evaluated and compared among the three groups. Result: Enhancement values of the proximal coronary arterial segments for group C were significantly lower than those for groups A and B (all, <i>P</i> < 0.05), whereas there were no significant differences between groups A and B (all, <i>P</i> > 0.05). Similar statistical results were found in the proportion of proximal coronary arterial segments with enhancement values ≥ 300 HU, image quality ratings and the proportion of the main of coronary arterial segments with image quality scores ≥ 3 on both per-vessel and per-patient analyses. Conclusion: At least 0.6 ml/kg with 350 mg I/ml of CM at 5.5 ml/s injection rate was required to achieve sufficient and credible evaluation of the coronary artery in 320-detector row CCTA.

Discovering differential features: Adversarial learning for information credibility evaluation

A series of deep learning approaches extract a large number of credibility features to detect fake news on the Internet. However, these extracted features still suffer from many irrelevant and noisy features that restrict severely the performance of the approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel model based on Adversarial Networks and inspirited by the Shared-Private model (ANSP), which aims at reducing common, irrelevant features from the extracted features for information credibility evaluation. Specifically, ANSP involves two tasks: one is to prevent the binary classification of true and false information for capturing common features relying on adversarial networks guided by reinforcement learning. Another extracts credibility features (henceforth, private features) from multiple types of credibility information and compares with the common features through two strategies, i.e., orthogonality constraints and KL-divergence for making the private features more differential. Experiments first on two six-label LIAR and Weibo datasets demonstrate that ANSP achieves state-of-the-art performance, boosting the accuracy by 2.1%, 3.1%, respectively and then on four-label Twitter16 validate the robustness of the model with 1.8% performance improvements.

Landscape of distant metastasis mode and current chemotherapy efficacy of the advanced biliary tract cancer in the United States, 2010-2016.

BackgroundThe distant metastasis (DM) mode and treatment efficacies in the advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC) were obscure, and a credible evaluation is urgently needed.MethodA total of 6348 advanced BTC patients (ICC, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, n = 1762; PHCC, perihilar cholangiocarcinoma, n = 1103; GBC, gallbladder cancer, n = 2580; DCC, distal cholangiocarcinoma, n = 538; AVC, carcinoma of Vater ampulla, n = 365) were enrolled from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Propensity score matching (PSM) process was carried out for less bias.ResultThe proportion of M1 patients in each subtype at first diagnosis was 26.4% (ICC), 37.2% (PHCC), 41. 0% (GBC), 24.5% (DCC), and 12.7% (AVC), and the constitution of DM sites in different subtypes varied apparently. Moreover, the survival of metastasis sites was different (P < .05 in all the subtypes) where the multi‐metastasis and distant lymph node (dLN) only always indicated the worst and best prognosis, respectively. Chemotherapy presented the most significant survival impact with the lowest hazard ratio by multivariate cox model and still provided a survival improvement after PSM (all P < .001) in all subtypes. However, the median months manifested different between patients with and without chemotherapy among the subtypes (ICC, from 5 to 9; PHCC, from 6 to 10; AVC, from 4 to 9; GBC, from 6 to 7; DCC from 6 to 8).ConclusionWe provided a landscape about the detailed DM mode of the advanced BTC in a large population, found the survival differences among DM sites, and revealed the different chemotherapy efficacies in the BTC subtypes.

Quantitative credibility evaluation of Global Energy Interconnection data

The development of Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) is essential for supporting a wide range of basic data resources. The Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization has established a comprehensive data center covering six major systems. However, methods for accurately describing and scientifically evaluating the credibility of the massive amount of GEI data remain underdeveloped. To address this lack of such methods, a GEI data credibility quantitative evaluation model is proposed here. An evaluation indicator system is established to evaluate data credibility from multiple perspectives and ensure the comprehensiveness and impartiality of evaluation results. The Cloud Model abandons the hard division of comments to ensure objectivity and accuracy in evaluation results. To evaluate the suitability of the proposed method, a case analysis is conducted, wherein the proposed method demonstrates sufficient validity and feasibility.

Information credibility evaluation in online professional social network using tree augmented naïve Bayes classifier

In recent years, companies depend on the Internet for posting job advertisements and attracting qualified personnel. However, with the vast number of Internet users and the tremendous amount of information on the Internet, it is difficult to accurately evaluate the credibility of the information that candidates provide on the Internet. Therefore, we propose an approach to assess information credibility in terms of trustworthiness and authority to identify unreliable user profiles in online professional social networks. Our approach calculates the trustworthiness probabilities of user profile information using the Tree Augmented Naive Bayes (TAN) classifier. It also measures the authority of individual users by applying the PageRank algorithm for analyzing the user interactions in the professional social networks. Finally, a group of LinkedIn users’ profiles is selected for conducting experiments to validate the proposed approach. Experiments based on a real-world scenario show that our approach integrating the TAN Bayes and PageRank algorithm outperforms other existing approaches in classification accuracy. In addition, the approach has been applied to another social network, namely, Maimai in China to further demonstrate its usefulness.

Paleoflood hydrology on the lower Green River, upper Colorado River Basin, USA: An example of a naturalist approach to flood-risk analysis

Through a comprehensive paleoflood hydrological investigation we document natural evidence for at least 27 high-magnitude paleofloods at six sites on the Lower Green River, Utah. Hydraulic analysis, using the Sedimentation and River Hydraulic-2D model (SRH-2D), shows that the responsible peak paleoflood discharges ranged between 500 and 7500 m3/s. At least 14 of these paleoflood discharge peaks exceed a level twice that of the maximum systematic record of gauged flows: 1929 m3/s. Geochronological analyses, employing optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques, demonstrate that these 14 largest paleoflood peaks occurred during the past 700 years. Integration of the paleoflood data into flood frequency analyses (FFA) reveals considerably higher values for the upper tails of the flood distribution than does a FFA based solely on the systematic gauged record, indicating that extreme floods are larger and more frequent than implied by the relatively short gauged record. Through examination of three approaches to extreme flood estimation – conventional FFA, probable maximum flood estimation (PMF), and paleoflood hydrology (PFH) – we show the significance of the natural evidence for advancing scientific understanding of extreme floods that naturally occur in the Colorado River system. We argue that this kind of scientific understanding is absolutely essential for achieving a credible evaluation of extreme flood risk in a watershed of immense importance to economic prosperity of the southwestern U.S.

Improved LDA Model for Credibility Evaluation of Online Product Reviews

Improved LDA Model for Credibility Evaluation of Online Product Reviews

Gender and credibility in branded storytelling

PurposeThis paper aims to explore gender differences regarding how men and women perceive the story of a CEO and a customer of different genders in audio advertising.Design/methodology/approachA Web-based three-way factorial experiment was designed with three storyteller types (founder’s story, customer’s story vs informational ad), story teller’s gender (male voice vs female voice) and research participants’ gender (men vs women). In total, 549 participants were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.FindingsResearchers found gender-based differences in how audiences evaluated messages from the founder versus the customer of a company. There was a relationship between a male speaker’s perceived authoritativeness and audiences’ favorability to the ad, but no such relationship when the speaker was a woman.Practical implicationsA female voice elicited more favorable attitudes toward the non-story informational ad. In the customer’s story ad, relatability between the speaker and the audience mattered. Participants perceived the ad as more credible and convincing when the gender of the customer in the ad was the same as their gender.Social implicationsWomen showed more favorable attitudes toward the male founder’s story compared to the female founder’s story. In evaluating the credibility of the female founder, audiences cared about her character (likability) rather than authoritativeness (expertise).Originality/valueThis study enriches the gender-related advertising-effect literature based on role congruity theory. The research contributes to the understanding of how gender bias still shapes the audiences’ evaluation of storyteller credibility.

Evaluation of Credibility for Reviewers and Review Scores Based on Link Analysis

Evaluation of Credibility for Reviewers and Review Scores Based on Link Analysis

Evaluation of Content Credibility in Social Media

Evaluation of Content Credibility in Social Media

Evaluation of credibility and repeatability of modified acetabular fracture classification system

The Letournel-Judet classification system for acetabular fractures is widely used, but there are still some shortcomings, such as incomplete classification and confusion of classification concepts, which cannot effectively guide the treatment. Professor Hou Zhiyong proposed and elaborated an improved acetabular fracture classification system based on the concept of three columns of acetabulum. However, the credibility and repeatability of the classification still lacked validation from clinical data. In this regard, the author included 463 patients with relatively complete imaging data admitted to Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University and Honghui Hospital affiliated to Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College in the past five years. Four trauma orthopedists classified the patients according to the modified classification method of acetabular fracture. After two months, the original sequence of imaging data was disrupted and re-classified by the same trauma orthopedists. The consistency of the classification was evaluated by Kappa test and compared with Letournel-Judet classification. The results showed that credibility and repeatability of the modified classification were higher than Letournel-Judet classification, suggesting the feasibility of clinical application. Key words: Hip fractures; Acetabulum; Modified acetabular fracture classification