Internet Searching: How to Evaluate Information Found on the Internet

Use this collection of guides to improve your critical thinking skills and learn about criteria for evaluating Internet-based information.

Evaluation: why bother?

• Whether you located your information in books, in journal articles, on the Internet or from any other source you must look at it critically. Information found on the Internet can be especially problematic: it has not gone through the traditional publishing process and its authority is often difficult to verify.

Check out the following sites for a demonstration of why it is important to think critically about information on the Internet:

• California's Velcro Crop http://www.home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html
• Feline Reactions to Bearded Men http://www.improbable.com/
• The First Male Pregnancy http://www.malepregnancy.com/

Bogus sites are easy to spot. Velcro crops? Male pregnancy? Well, cats could possibly respond differently to men with beards. . .

Researching any topic on the Internet can present evaluation challenges, but controversial topics are more difficult than others. The Internet has become a particularly attractive home for hate literature and conspiracy theories. Consider, for example, the mass of material on the Kennedy assassination. The following site offers an interesting compilation of the "misinformation and disinformation" surrounding the murder of JFK:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm

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Basic Criteria for Evaluating Internet-Based Information Sources:

What is a URL?
URL stands for uniform resource locator. It is the unique address of a Web document.

Authority

• Does the author possess expertise in the field you are researching?
• Is the author associated with a reputable organization?
• Does the author provide contact/biographical/credentials information?
• Who is the publisher? Recognizable? Educational? Government?
• It is sometimes difficult to determine authorship for Web pages. Look especially for sites from educational institutions or governments. You may need to trace back in the Web site address to determine the sponsoring source--try backspacing characters in the URL to go up to a higher directory.
• For Canadian government sites look for .gc or .gov (.gov for American sites); for Canadian educational sites look for the name of the institution followed by .ca (.edu for American).
• Be wary of documents posted on commercial sites (.com) as well as documents that have a personal name in the URL.

Purpose

• What is the purpose of the information: to inform or educate or sell?
• Can you determine the intended audience from the content or tone or look of the site?

Timeliness

• What is the publication date of the information source?
• When was the Web page last revised or updated?
• For your specific topic, is the information dated? Do you need current or historical information or both?

Relevance

• Does the information contribute to your knowledge of the topic?
• Search engine results will match the terms you typed into the search box, but they don't always match your information need.
• Does the document refute/support the arguments you are presenting? It is often useful to include in a meaningful way both material that refutes and that supports your arguments.
• Is there useful background information presented?

Accuracy

• Be critical of everything you read.
• Is a particular point of view or perspective being presented to the extent that accuracy is compromised?
• Are sources of information supplied? Poorly documented information is immediately suspect.
• Consult additional information sources such as books and journal articles so that you have some background on the topic.
• Do not assume that all links from the page represent the views of the author and have been completely evaluated.

Coverage

• Does the author let you know what is covered and what is excluded?
• Are points of view other than the author's acknowledged and discussed?

Web Site Design

• Consider the functionality of the site. Is it easy to navigate or easy to get lost?
• Consider the writing style. Is it appropriate for the intended audience?
• Is the site being properly maintained? For example, do the links work?
  

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Evaluation Guides

Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources
http://www.lib.vt.edu/research/libinst/evalbiblio.html
Nicole Auer, Librarian at Virginia Tech, maintains this bibliography of documents that address the problems and issues related to teaching and using critical thinking skills to evaluate Internet resources. The bibliography includes Internet resources, print resources, example Web sites, useful listservs, useful books, and an interactive module on evaluating Internet resources.

Evaluating Web Resources
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm
Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate, authors of Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999), provide a Web-based resource evaluation module that includes checklists and teaching materials along with a power point presentation and Web site examples.

Evaluation of Information Sources
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm
This document is a part of the Information Quality WWW Virtual Library and presents a listing of a wide range of pages particularly useful to librarians and others who are selecting sites to include in an information resource guide, or informing users as to the qualities they should use in evaluating Internet information.

Internet Detective
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html
This is an interactive tutorial on evaluating the quality of Internet resources. Created by "DESIRE - Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education".

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