Skip to Main Content
Evaluating Internet sources
- There is
some great information on the Internet
- You need
to be even more careful about evaluating it
- Much of
the information on the Internet is not subject to even the most basic and
cursory form of review
- You can use many of the same criteria that you use for evaluating print sources
- There are, however, a few extra wrinkles
- Author’s
credentials
- The
author’s identity can be difficult to determine but if it is impossible to find
out, then be suspicious
- Publisher
- Much of
the information on the Internet is not formally published – look for a
sponsoring organization
- Currency
- This can
be very difficult to determine
- Be
skeptical of dates that indicate the page was created today
- References
- References to Web pages tend to come from other Web pages
- This is what the Google search and relevancy algorithms are based on
- In that case, you need to bear in mind the reliability of the referring page
- Reviews
- These can be harder to find, but they do exist
- Credible blogs can also be very helpful in assessing Web sites
