Evaluating Internet Information Sources

Evaluate every page you are considering according to the following criteria:

Authority: individual or organization responsible for the content

• Contact information such as email address, address, telephone number

• Qualifications of the author to write on this topic

• Prestige of the organization or justification for the organization to distribute information on this topic

Tips

• Check for authority information at the top and bottom of each page

• Check for a link that describes the mission of the organization or credentials of the author

• Strip away successive layers of the web address (whatever comes after the right most / mark) in the browser Location box to gather more information about the author/organization responsible for the page

• Check the domain of the web server

  • .gov is a government agency

  • .edu equates K-12 or college educational sponsors

  • .org is an organization funded by grants or a non-profit

  • .com are sales or an Internet Service Provider sites (Use Extreme Caution)

  • .mil is military

  • .net is Internet-based (Use Extreme Caution)

Accuracy: Factual, substantiated information

• Verify the content: is this perspective unusual or did another source take the same perspective? Has someone else checked this information?

• Footnotes or references provided

• Errors in grammar, spelling, typing, formatting

• Quality of graphics, appearance, and content

• Professional or home-grown; logo of responsible organization

• Awards listed at top or bottom of page (verify they are not fake)

Tips

• Check suspicious references and facts

• Scan the content looking for inconsistencies, personal biases, obvious errors

Objectivity: Informational, factual, or biased

• Advertising or .com domain indicates a sales rather than informational intent

• Presents all sides of an issue or purports one particular perspective

Tips

• Scan the content looking for biases

• Evaluate advertisements to determine why they are present (to support a valuable public service or other reason)

Currency: Frequently updated and maintained

• Information becomes dated quickly on the Internet

• Pages that do not have a last updated date within the last 6 months may have been abandoned and are unreliable sources

• Undated or outdated (more than one year old) material is suspect

• The presence of incorrect, outdated, or moved links indicates the page has not been recently updated

Tips

• Look for copyright, original, and last updated dates

Coverage: What is says it covers, and what you need

• The Internet contains many teasers that promote books, journals, and products without providing the actual content

• Electronic journals often list a table of contents and a few actual articles at their web site to entice scholars; the complete text may not be available online

• Is the content relevant to the specific topic you are researching?

• Is this the best source for this information?

Tips

• Click on links and scroll to the bottom of each page to be certain the entire content is posted.

• Watch for subscription and purchase information that indicates a sales rather than informational intent.