Whenever you do research on the internet, you should evaluate the sources and sites you find. There are many ways to evaluate websites.
- One way to do this is to look at the domain name. Here are some domain names (technically, these are called Generic top-level domain names...gTLD):
- .com--> unrestricted (but generally for commercial operations)
- .edu--> US Post-Secondary educational institutions
- .org--> unrestricted (many may be non-profit organizations, but not all will be)
- .gov--> US Government
- .mil--> US Military
- For academic work, .edu, .gov and .mil sites might be more appropriate. Remember that all sources may have some sort of bias (a government or university website will not criticize the parent institution for example). Always evaluate your sources.
- Use your judgement. http://www.mayoclinic.com/ is a good website maintained by the Mayo Clinic. It contains advertisements and is a .com, but is obviously a reliable place for basic health information since it is connected to a world reknown hospital.
- Another way to evaluate a website is to consider who the author is and what the motive of the author is. Here are some questions to ask:
- What is the bias of the website?
- Is the website a charity and would like you to donate to its cause?
- Is the website an international organization with statistical information?
- Is the website trying to get you to buy a product?
- Nearly all websites will have some kind of bias.
- Does the website have advertisements?
- If so, this means that the website is for-profit
- Is the website written by a company?
- If so, remember the company generally will not provide information critical of its practices.
- Is the website written by an individual?
- Check to see if the author lists any credentials (such as being professor at a University).
- If no credentials are listed, it may mean that the author is not an expert (or has no formal education in this field).
- Is the information presented in a scholarly way? Are there citations for information that is not common knowledge?
- Lack of citations might mean that the information is not scholarly (it depends if you are looking for scholarly information or not).
- Are there spelling mistakes and grammatical errors?
- If so, this is usually a cause for concern.
- Is the material user generated?
- The content on websites like Wikipedia is generated by users.
- Be careful of such sources and confirm the information elsewhere.
- Such sites should not be used as primary sources.
- Can you confirm the information in multiple sources?
- If not, you may want to move on to another source.
- When was the information written?
- Check to see when the page was last updated. This could indicate that the information is out of date.
- Careful with this. The page may say updated 2012, but this could mean that the font was changed in 2012 but the original content was made in 1997.
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