Evaluating Research:
Author's Bias
When we speak of "bias" in evaluating an author's credibility, we are not assuming anything negative about the person because there is no such thing as a bias free text. All authors write from a point-of-view and therefore write from a bias.
Discussion
While reading Kevin Sinclair's Culture Shock, you will find that he is sympathetic to the Chinese government's reaction to the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square.
Sinclair's pro-government position does not make him loose his credibility. as long as they do not distort their research, it is possible for intelligent people to disagree on their interpretation of events. However, because his primary audience for Culture Shock is businessmen and businesswomen who are dealing with the Chinese government, his bias makes the book more valuable to them.
Acceptable Bias
You can identify bias on this web site; a bias that springs from my choice to make Schoolcraft College students and faculty as the primary audience for Resources for Writers. It is perfectly acceptable for an author to choose a primary audience for his/her primary source.
As a result of my bias, I am more likely to cite the local Holocaust Memorial Center instead of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as my example of a special collection in which research could be done.
Such bias is acceptable because, while serving the needs of the primary audience, I am not biasing the substance of the materials I am presenting.
Unacceptable Bias
Although bias is not a negative term, there are authors whose bias gets in the way of quality research. These are the authors who ignore evidence that contradicts their point of view, use logical fallacies, lie, and so forth. Such bias is unacceptable.
