Criteria
Links
References
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Anyone can publish on the web. There is no quality
control such as that provided by librarians who select items for their
collections. This gives you the opportunity to do the quality control yourself,
which can be empowering. But it makes it important for you to develop skills
in evaluating information.
To evaluate online information, consider the following criteria.
Note: To
check out other sources on online information evaluation, explore criteria
links.
Credibility
How credible or believable is the source? Consider:
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Credentials: academic background, institutional affiliation, or previously
published work.
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Arguments: Are arguments for the author's point of view logical and well
reasoned?
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Documentation: Are facts and arguments supported by references to existing
scholarly literature by reputable authors?
A source may have excellent credentials and yet be of limited value. In
some cases, a source with less impressive credentials may turn out to be
highly valuable.
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Bias
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Does the source seem to have a hidden agenda, or rigidly narrow point of
view?
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Does the source distort other points of view, or dismiss them out of hand?
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Does the source accept advertising? If so, does the advertising appear
to bias the information?
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Is there an conflict of interest? Does the source stand to profit financially
from a particular point of view?
Although financial motivations can cause information to be biased, keep
in mind that many corporate sites are excellent sources of free, valuable
information. Just remember to look at the information in context.
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Accuracy
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Does the author give supporting documentation for facts presented?
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Is the cited documentation reputable?
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Does the information contradict other reliable sources?
You may choose to overlook a minor discrepancy or factual error in an otherwise
valuable source. But if you notice such a mistake, it makes sense to be
somewhat skeptical. There may be other errors or omissions that you don't
notice but that undermine the quality of the information.
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Currency
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Is the information current?
The web page should state the name of its author (or institution) and the
date it was last modified. Of course, the fact that a page was recently
modified doesn't guarantee that the information it contains is up to date.
Currency may be extremely important for topics that are changing on
a daily basis, for example information about internet software and technologies.
For other topics, such as a historical survey, currency may be less of
an issue.
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Relevance
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Is the information relevant to your topic?
This may vary depending on the stage you are in:
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During your initial search, explore broadly so that you won't exclude anything
that you may later decide is important.
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As you refine your search, your topic will probably become narrower and
fewer items will be relevant.
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When you identify your key sources, you will have more stringent requirements
and even fewer items will be relevant.
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Significance
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Is the information significant?
The content is not valuable to you unless it is significant. The information
may be trivial. Or it may be common knowledge. Or it may be too general,
and not include enough detail about the subject you are researching.
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Intended Audience
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Is the information designed for an audience with needs similar to your
own?
For example, a site intended for health care consumers may cover the same
subject matter as a site for post-doctoral medical researchers, but the
needs of the two audiences are different.
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Usability
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Does the home page have a site map or menu to give you a sense of the overall
structure of the site?
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Does the organization of the site make intuitive sense to you?
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Do you have to move through many screens to find the information you want?
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Is the text divided into coherent chunks with headings that are easy to
scan?
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Is the text well written and concise?
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Do graphics and visual cues reinforce the content, or are they a distraction?
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Do pages with graphics take a long time to download?
A web site that is easy to use is more fun and inviting. This encourages
us to explore and to learn. A site that is very difficult to use may not
be worth the trouble. However, you may come across a site that is not well
designed but that has valuable information.
Note: Some
sites are designed for interactive learning while others serve primarily
as a means of distributing documents. In the second case, you may decide
to print out pages of the site rather than reading online.
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