Lesson 9: Evaluating Web Sites

When you view an Internet site ask yourself: 

• Why is this information free? 

• The old saying “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” is generally true.
   
• Make sure you find out if they are trying to sell you something and if this is reflected in the information offered free of charge.

You are the Editor

Whenever you use books or periodicals in the AVC library you can be assured that the information in those materials has been reviewed by qualified editors for accuracy, spelling, grammar, reliability etc.  You can trust that these books and periodicals are appropriate for your term paper.  

However, when it comes to the Internet, this is not the case. 

Please remember:  No one is in charge of the World Wide Web or the Internet. 

No one is checking to see whether the information is accurate, factual or written by a qualified expert.  When it comes to the Internet, YOU are the editor, YOU are the one who evaluates whether the material presented on the Web site is appropriate for your research paper.   This part of the tutorial will teach you how to select useful Web sites from those that should not be used for writing term papers.   

Evaluation Criteria

There are five evaluation criteria that will help you determine the credibility of Internet sources:

• Authority

• Accuracy

• Objectivity

• Currency

• Coverage

Not every Web site you visit or use will satisfy all of the above criteria.  

The example below is a reputable Web site, The 2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines,  produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.    In the rest of this lesson we will use sections of this Web site to illustrate most of our evaluation criteria point by point.

In an ideal world, every document on the Internet would have an author and his/her credentials.

However, often it is not possible to identify who wrote an article, much less the author’s qualifications as an expert in that field.
 
If you cannot find an author, try to determine the individual or group/organization responsible for the site. If the individual/organization is reliable, then perhaps the article is reliable as well.

Consider the following criteria when evaluating a Web site:

• Who is responsible for the content of the site?   Anyone with anything to say, be it an organization or an individual, can say it on the Internet.   An example from our government site gives some indication of authorship:

• Try to verify, using other reliable sources, who or what created and maintains the site and its content.  In our example it is pretty clear who created this site and is easily verified in the United States Government Manual.

How accurate is the information presented at the site? 

In our example, the Federal Register is listed as the place of publication for the poverty guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services.  Information in a publication such as the Federal Register is subjected to editorial scrutiny before publication.  It is likely to have reliable information.

• Can any of the facts in the article be verified against an outside source?  Ideally, the site should list sources for any facts and statistical information presented.  In the example below, the source of the statistics in the table is clearly stated.

• Is the information free of grammatical, spelling and other errors?  Errors may indicate that the author is less than conscientious in presenting information. 
  
  
• Is anyone responsible for the accuracy of the information?   Book and periodical publishers employ professional editors to ensure that the information in their publications is correct and reliable.  In our example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is assuming responsibility for the content of the Web site.  
   
• Does the site include a bibliography or list of references?  Our example incorporates a link to references and contacts for further research.

• The Internet is the world’s largest “soap box”. Individuals and groups of every kind, legitimate and otherwise, publish their viewpoints on the ‘Net. 

• When evaluating sites, try to identify the goals of the individual or group responsible for the site.  Not every site on the Internet is an objective, unbiased source of information.

• As may be seen in the example below, the goal of this Health & Human Services site is to offer statistics on poverty known as the "poverty guidelines".  A statement at the site makes this purpose clear and also informs the reader that this is not the only statistical format available for this information.  

• Carefully evaluate sites that go against the general tide of scholarly opinion.  Don't know what that is?  Consult your professor. He or she will be able to advise you.
  

• Conventional publications such as books and periodicals generally bear a date of publication.  This allows you to determine the age of the material and whether or not you would want to use it in your paper. 

• Depending on the topic you are researching, currency can be quite important.   Web based publications do not always have a date, and when they do, it does not always refer to the date the content of the site was written or published.  

• A date on a Web page may indicate the original publishing date of the article, the date the article was placed on the Web, or the date the page was last updated.  

• Pages that are updated frequently are often the most useful for a research paper.  Undated pages may offer outdated information that would not be appropriate for your research paper.   Our example has been updated fairly recently.

• Although the Internet has a tremendous amount of information about an enormous number of topics, a lot of this information is represented by very brief articles.  Unfortunately, the World Wide Web can be rather shallow.

• Try to choose articles that are long enough to demonstrate that the author has a thorough understanding of the topic.  

• Look for articles that include or link to a bibliography or list of references.  Such bibliographies or lists of references can  lead you to articles you might use when writing your paper.  Our government site incorporates links to bibliographical references.

• A good source for longer, more reputable articles are government publications and some of the specialized e-journals now appearing on the Internet with more frequency.

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