6. Evaluating Internet Sources
EVALUATING INFORMATION
Not all information is suitable for a specific research assignment. Critically assessing information sources will speed up your research and help you focus on what is most useful for a particular assignment. The steps of the evaluation process are the same regardless of whether you are using print or electronic sources. Ask yourself the following questions about your information resources:
1. Is the information appropriate and relevant to your topic? Review the source to determine if the format or medium is useful, if it is a primary or secondary source, if the information is sufficiently comprehensive, if the reading level is appropriate, and if the information expresses a particular point of view.
2. Is the information timely? Your topic will determine if it is important to have current information. Topics of continuing and/or rapid development, such as science and law, may demand more current information. For other topics, such as history and literature, older information might be appropriate. Check the copyright date of the resource to determine if the information is current or out-of-date. Consider also how regularly the information is updated and if it is still valid for your topic. If your information source is a web site, note the copyright date or the date of the latest update. There is no standard location for these, but it is often at the bottom of the first page.
3. Is the information reliable? Identify the credentials of the author(s) or sponsoring organization to determine the authority or credibility of the information. Consider the author's background, purpose for writing, and if the information covered is fact, opinion, or propaganda. Determine if the author has included references to support conclusions and facts.
4. Is the information complete? Determine how thorough the topic coverage must be in order to satisfy the requirements of your research. Browsing the table of contents, index, or abstract/summary is the best way for deciding if the information is adequate. Browsing the source will also help you decide if the information repeats much of the information that you already have.
5. Is the information accurate? Determine how the information has been obtained and if the facts presented are consistent with information from other sources. Look closely at statistics and make sure that the original source is identified. Also, look at the language of the source to see if it is objective and impartial, or biased and emotional.
Evaluating Web pages and websites:
Although similar criteria is used for evaluating information whether it be from a print or electronic source, there are some aspects that are unique to evaluating information from the Internet. Most of these involve the authorship and sponsorship of the web site. To determine the authority of a website or page, you need to do the following:
1. Identify the sponsoring entity of the site or page.
2. Identify the author of the site or page.
3. Identify the author's credentials.
Identifying the sponsoring entity:
A first clue about a sponsoring entity can be found in the domain in the URL. Here's what a domain tells you about the sponsoring entity:
Domain description / Authoritativeness:
.org--non-profit organization / often yes, but may biased, supporting one side of an issue
.gov--government / yes
.us--U.S. state government / yes
.mil--military / yes
.edu--school, college or university / yes if you can identify author's credentials and references are cited where appropriate
.com--commercial enterprise / maybe, but might be biased, information may be unreliable, author may lack credentials
Authorship and reliability:
The name of the author of a Web page often appears at the end of the page. A page carries greater authority if a viewer can contact the author should some follow-up about the page be wanted or needed.
If a site or page provides factual information only, the lack of an author does not detract from its reliability. When, however, a site offers opinions or presents information about a controversial subject, lack of an author can reflect badly on the authority of the site or page.
A note on using the evaluation criteria:
The criteria for evaluating information sources should be viewed as guidelines rather than absolutes. Whether or not a particular source is appropriate depends upon many factors, including the nature of your assignment, the expectations of the instructor, and how you choose to use the information.
For more information about evaluating websites:
Also, a different viewpoint that challenges the above conventional approaches to evaluating information: "Chucking the Checklist: A Contextual Approach to Teaching Undergraduates Web-Site Evaluation" by Marc Meola, available in the ProQuest database. One of the points made in this article is that another way to check the validity of information is to compare several sources to see if they agree. Remember that even experts and authorities don't always necessarily agree, and even trustworthy sources can have errors. "Trust, but verify."
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