Evaluating Internet Sources
More and more information is now available via the internet, some of it free and much of it available for a fee. For electronic information from an academic database, you can use the evaluation criteria for articles or books. Free web sources should be reviewed more cautiously. Free web sources are not necessarily invalid for your research, but it is important to think about how well they support your project or research initiative.
For free sources on the web, check these basic points:
- Author or contact person - usually located at the bottom of the page
- Institution - usually a logo or link located in either header or footer
- Domain - the last segment of the root or base URL (e.g., .edu, .gov, .com).
- Date of creation or revision - usually at the bottom of the page
- Intended audience - determined by examining the content
- Purpose
of the information - determined by examining the content
Consult these evaluation questions for a more in-depth analysis of a resource.