Evaluating Internet Sources
Evaluating Internet Sources
Because of the hodge-podge of information on the Internet, it is very important you develop
evaluation skills to assist you in identifying quality Web pages. There are six (6) criteria that should
be applied when evaluating any Web
site:authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage, and appearance. For each criteria,
there are several questions to be asked. The more questions you can answer "yes", the more likely
the Web site is one of quality.
The framework of this document (criteria and questions) was developed by Jan Alexander and
Marsha Tate and is available on their site Evaluate Web Pages.
Below is a chart listing key questions for each of the six criteria. By clicking on a particular criteria,
you will be given more explanation.
Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?
Authority
Accuracy
Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they can be
verified in another source?
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage
Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written, when
the page was first placed on the Web, or when the page was last
revised?
Are these topics successfully addressed, with clearly presented
arguments and adequate support to substantiate them?
Does the work update other sources, substantiate other materials you
have read, or add new information?
1. Authority
a) Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?
WHY IMPORTANT? - It is critical to relate the ideas you find at a site to a
particular author, organization, or business. In this way, there is a degree of
accountability for any of the ideas expressed. Once the individual or
organization responsible for the content is known, you can then begin to look at
other clues to help you ascertain credibility, such as credentials and reputation.
Be especially wary of sites in which the author or sponsoring organization is not
clearly stated.
Note, the sponsor of a site is often responsible for the content. You can quickly
determine a site's sponsor by looking for references at the top and/or bottom of
the page. In addition, the first part of the address of a site, called the domain,
contains information that allows you to get a general idea of the sponsor. For
example, having the domain name .edu (e.g. http://www.nmu.edu) means the
site is hosted by an educational institution, .com means a commercial
enterprise, .gov means a government agency, and .org means an organization,
such as the National Rifle Association. It is important to note that some
sponsors are not directly responsible for the content on their site, such as
personal pages hosted by universities or commercial Internet Service Providers
(e.g. AOL, UP.net, etc.). You can identify these pages because they are often
represented by a tilde (~) in their address (e.g.
http:www.nmu.edu/~kmcdonou/home.html).
If you want to find out specifically who is hosting a site, you can remove part of
the address from your current page and go back to the root address. For
example, let's say you are looking at a site on the Renaissance, located
at http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/. If there is no indication who is
sponsoring this site you can go back to http://www.learner.org/. Here you
discover the Renaissance site is a project sponsored by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting with funding from the Annenberg School of
Communications.
b) Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the organization, group,
company or individual? That is, is there a phone number or postal address
to contact for more information? (Simply an e-mail address is not enough).
WHY IMPORTANT? - Anyone with an Internet Service Provider (AOL, UP.net,
NMU, etc.) can put up a Web page. As a result, you need to have some idea
whether the group claiming responsibility for the information on the Web site is
legitimate. A phone number or postal address allows you to contact the group or
company and ask for more information. Be wary of sites that do not provide
contact information. Because it is difficult to verify the legitimacy of an
individual, personal home pages may be useful sources for personal opinion,
but must be used with caution when citing them as source for factual
information.
NWS. An official position will have been reviewed or edited before being
released.
2. Accuracy
a) Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they can be verified
in another source?
WHY IMPORTANT? - A source of information is known to be scholarly when it
provides references to the information presented. In this way, the reader can
confirm whether the information is accurate or the author's conclusions
reasonable. A page without references still may be useful as an example of the
ideas of an individual, organization, or business, but not as source of factual
information.
b) Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and other typographical
errors?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Such errors not only indicate a lack of attention and effort,
but also can actually produce inaccuracies in information. Whether the errors
come from carelessness or ignorance, they both put the information or writer in
an unfavorable light.
3. Objectivity
a) Does the content appear to contain any evidence of bias?
WHY IMPORTANT? - If the content contains bias, only one point of view is
being presented. This may not be bad depending on your needs. For example,
in writing a position paper on gun control, you may want to compare the
extreme pro-gun position of the National Rifle Association, with that of the antigun organization Cease Fire or a more balanced report published by an
independent think tank site (such as the Brookings Institute). Regardless, you
will want to know if the information is biased or not in order to make appropriate
decisions on how to use it.
One way of determining this is by relying on your own experience and
knowledge to determine if the information appears believable or reasonable. In
your experience, does the information make sense? If an individual claims that
one of every 3 Americans have an alcohol problem, is it true that a third of all
your friends and family members have a drinking problem? Another way of
detecting bias is assessing how true the information appears relative to other
reliable sources of information. You should make sure you corroborate any
position you find with other positions published in other sources, such as
periodicals or books. In this way you can discover where a position appears on
the continuum.
NOTE: the domain name (as mentioned under Authority) can help you
determine the possible slant or potential bias of the information contained in a
site. For example, the benefits of a new drug might be more objective coming
from a government web site (.gov), such as the Food and Drug Administration,
rather than those offered by its manufacturer, Bristal-Myers Squibb (.com).
Directly related to bias is the concept of fairness. Good information sources will
use a calm, reasoned tone to present information in a balanced manner. Pay
attention to the tone and be cautious of sites that contain highly emotional
writing. Writing that is overly critical, attacking, or spiteful often indicates an
irrational and unfair presentation rather than a reasoned argument.
b) Is there a link to a page describing the goals or purpose of the sponsoring
organization or company?
WHY IMPORTANT? - The goals or purpose of a group, organization, or
company can help you assess for possible biasness. For example, let's say you
found an article in the online newspaper-The Truth at Last-stating how black
slaves enjoyed the idea of slavery. There is nothing in the title of the
newspaper that would necessarily lead you to believe this is a biased
perspective. However, upon looking at the page describing the goals of this
newspaper, you discover it is published by a group of individuals that advocate
the segregation of the white and black races. Thus, the article you read could
be suspect based on the extreme position of the sponsoring group.
c) If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly differentiated from the
informational content?
WHY IMPORTANT? - The intent of advertising is to sell a product or
idea. Sometimes advertising is woven into an article, where it is hard to notice
that the information presented is actually part of an advertisement. An example
in the print world would be a multi-page, special advertising insert
in Newsweek, paid for by a leading group of pharmaceutical companies that
discusses new developments in drug treatments for arthritis. Although the
article is very informative, it's intent is to promote the products of particular
companies. In the Web environment, it is especially important to critically
examine information presented on commercial sites (.com).
4. Currency
Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written, when the
page was first placed on the Web,or when the page was last revised?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Some information is very time sensitive. For example, a
page talking about the top rate Web search engines in 1997 is going to be
horribly out of date in 2000. There have been incredible changes in search
engine technology and new developments appear almost monthly. However, a
page discussing the Civil War is likely still relevant today even if the page was
created in 1996 and has not been updated. Regardless, a site should always
provide some indication of when the information was created or the site was
last updated.
5. Coverage
a) Are these topics successfully addressed, with clearly presented arguments
and adequate support to substantiate them?
b) Does the work update other sources, substantiate other materials you have
read, or add new information? Does it extensively or marginally cover your
topic?
c) Is the target audience identified and appropriate for your needs?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Coverage is one of the most important factors to consider before using the
information in a Web page. If the information appears one sided, it could be evidence of bias (see
objectivity). You should explore enough sources to obtain a variety of viewpoints and thereby
determine where a particular view fits on the continuum.
Also, you will want to see if a page is presenting a new perspective on the topic, or just summarizing
other sources. If it summarizes other sources, you will likely want to get hold of the originals. If it is
difficult to assess the topics covered in a page or the arguments are not presented very clearly, you
might reconsider before referencing this site.
Finally, be aware of the target audience to whom a page is directed. The target audience has a direct
bearing on the coverage of a site. For example, if you find a page dealing with evolution on a K-12
educational site, it is likely the material may be too simplified for a college biology paper.
6. Appearance
a) Does the site look well organized?
b) Do the links work?
c) Does the site appear that it is well maintained?
d) Do graphics and multimedia obscure content?
WHY IMPORTANT - In the print world, one way of assessing quality in a book is through it's physical
layout and appearance: the sturdiness of the binding and cover material, the presence of a well
organized table of contents and comprehensive index, clear type face, appropriate illustrations,
etc. This attention to detail reflects an inherent quality. Likewise, in the Web environment a sign of
quality in a site is external links that work properly, an organizational structure that allows one to
quickly determine content and access it equally fast, and graphics or multimedia that complement
the information presented.
Here are two links to help you look further into information resources:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/01/
http://www.library.arkansas.gov/libraryDivisions/travelerAccess/Pages/StudentResour
ces.aspx