A Quick Guide to Using the Web for Academic Research:
Verifiable Information and the Web
Consider
these questions when you are evaluating web pages as potentially
"reliable"
sources of information:
- Does
the title of the web page suggest any bias towards or against the
information covered, or is the information well balanced?
- Is
there evidence of bias within the body of the web page, or in the
material linked
to it?
- Is it
clear who the author of the web page is? Is there a way provided to
communicate with the author?
- If
this page is put up by an organization, is it clear what the
organization is,
and what their stand on the issue is?
- Are
you able to find independent information about the organization from
other sources? (This may mean using non-web based reference tools).
- What
sort of domain does the web page's url come from? Is it a .com, .edu, .gov, or .org?
- Is
the information copyrighted? (This does not imply that the information
is in any
way more reliable, but may indicate an "official" position of an
organization).
- Is
the web page dated? Has it been updated recently?
- Are
there obvious typographical or factual errors? Is the page messy? Do
all of the links work? In other words, does the page seem to be well
sorted, and of
sound quality?
- Does
the web page feature any advertising? If so, does it relate to the
nature of
the site?
- Finally,
where does this page fit in the web generally? Does it link to pages of
similar quality? Consider evaluating those sites as well.
Generally speaking, using web sites in scholarly research may be risky.
The questions above address some of the areas of concern you should
have
about pages you may use in the course of doing research (much as you
would
question print resources). The use of these questions (and the answers
you
may get) cannot guarantee that all the sites you use are sources of
reliable
information, but they may help eliminate questionable sites quickly. In
the broadest terms, the user will find a web site good to use in
academic
research if it contains the following elements:
- The
content of the web page is balanced, and there is no evidence of
obvious bias.
- The
author (personal, or corporate) is evident, as well as some information
as to why they may be credible in regards to the web page's topic, and
that there is a way to contact the author (by mail, e-mail, or by
phone).
- The
page is well constructed, free of obvious errors, and that there is
evidence
that the page is maintained. That implies that the information should
be
dated, and the date is relatively current, and that any links attached
to
the page work. Associated links should be to pages of similar (or
higher
quality).
- The
url domain can indicate bias where the
web page
generally may not. A .com domain
indicates
that the page is a commercial one, and may indicate the opinions of a
business,
or has as a motivation sales of products or services. A .edu site originates from the education
sector, but may range from various educational levels. These are pages
put up by students,
instructors, educational departments, and researchers. Quality and
reliability
may vary. A .gov site originates
from
a governmental entity. You may have particular opinions about potential
reliability
of such sources, but these sites often contain "official" information
that
is used by the citing office, and often other offices, or agencies of
the
government. A .org site is derived
from
some sort of organization, and may reflect that organizations
particular
agenda. Often however, .org sites do contain a wealth of
specific
knowledge in relation to the topic their organization is created around.
Last revised
on 03/11/07
SE