Guide to Research Online

Evaluating Web Sites

Unlike a college or university library, where information appropriate to scholarly research and intellectual pursuits has already been selected for you in the choice of books and journals available, the Internet contains a vast amount of unsorted information that varies considerably in quality. If you are going to use information from Web sites, you must evaluate it first.

Suggestions For Evaluating Web Sites

The credibility of the author

The most important question to ask about a Web site is who created it. When looking for information with some type of critical value, it is important to know if the author has appropriate credentials or qualifications. Authors with credentials in a specific field are more likely to be trustworthy, accurate, and scholarly. If the author is not known to you, search for information on her or him.
Web sites developed by the personnel of an institution - academic institutions, foundations, government agencies, museums, etc. - usually have more authentic, accurate, and current data. Look at the domain address:
edu = education
org = organization (non-profit)
mil = military
gov = government
com = commercial
net = network service provider

In the British Commonwealth:
ac = academic organization
co = commercial organization

The quality of the information
Once you have established the credibility of the author, you need to evaluate the quality of information she or he provides.
A first step in assessing quality is to ask:
1. Is the writing style understandable?
2. Is the writing grammatically correct?
3. Are there many spelling errors?
If the quality of the writing is poor, it is likely that the quality of the information will also be poor (but be alert to pages that provide poor translations from another language but otherwise contain valuable information).
The second step is to ask:
1. Is the material significant or just fluff?
2. Is the subject matter covered adequately?
3. Is the information accurate?
4. Is the information objective?
These last four points may be difficult for you to assess, especially if the information is new to you. The authority of the author should carry some weight in your judgment, but you will also need to assess it with respect to other legitimate printed or Web-based sources.
Other indications of value or quality are the inclusion of a source bibliography, footnotes, or references. If known to you, these sources can indicate immediately whether or not the information has been appropriately and adequately researched. You can also verify the source references yourself and thereby establish the accuracy or quality of the author's research.

Point of view or bias
In the process of identifying the author and establishing the quality of the information, it is important to be alert to the point of view or bias of the author or the Web site. While different points of view may be welcomed in a scholarly context, you must be wary of information that serves commercial or sociopolitical ends. You need to ask:

1. What is the basis or source for material?
2. Is something being sold?
3. Is there a hidden agenda?
4. Is the Web site used for advertising?
5. Is the Web site used by a business or corporation to promote itself?
6. Is the Web site used by a particular type of organization to disseminate its own ideas and ideology?

For more information, consult the following:
Evaluating Web Resources
Authors: Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library Information Gateway, Widener University
Evaluating Quality on the Net
Author: Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College, Babson Park, MA
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
Author: Elizabeth E. Kirk, Electronic and Distance Education Librarian, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University
Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources
Author: Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library
Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools
Author: Michael Engle, Reference Division, Olin * Kroch * Uris Libraries, Cornell University