Resources for Information Skills
Section contents page Introduction Finding the information you need Defining your information needs General criteria for evaluating information GEvaluating books Evaluating journal articles Evaluating journal articles: continued... Evaluating internet resources Summary
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Evaluating Internet Resources

The Internet is full of information but not all of them are high quality. Remember:
  • Anyone can publish anything on the Internet
  • No approval necessary
  • Volume of information on the internet continues to increase every single day
  • Internet resources can come in many different formats and designs and can change at any moment
  • Any part of the Internet can become unavailable at any moment

Some of the basic criteria to evaluate the Internet resources

Authority

Authority indicates whether they are organization, or an agency of a reliable, knowledgeable and qualified body.An example of relible authority can be a government agency or higher education college or non-profit organization.

Ask some of the following questions to yourself:

  • Is the details of the author clearly stated along with credentials?
  • Is the author/information provider affiliated with a recognized institution/organization?
  • Is there evidence of quality control or editorial process

Evaluate the URL(address) of the web page. This may provide clues of the authority of a source. For instance:

  • edu =higher education college or university.(http://www.umd.edu)
  • org =non-profit organization.(http://bhutanfound.org/)
  • gov =government agency or organization.(http://www.justice.gov/)
  • com =commercial organization.(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/)
  • net =network provider.(http://www.verizon.net)
  • int =intergovernmental organization.(http://www.nato.int)
Accuracy

Try to judge how correct and reliable the informaiton is on the website

  • Reliability- Is the information dependable?
  • How precise is the information?
  • Did author cite reference resources to retrieve orginal source?
  • Did author use any in-text citations to support the argument?
  • Motivation- Why is the article published on the web?
  • Did author trying to sell his/her idea or opinion?
Currency

Internet resources can be updated instantly, and thereby they have an obvious advantages over the traditional information resources. The following dates should be checked prior to your reading:

  • Date of information- It provides when the article was written.
  • Publicaiton date- It indicates when the article was first published on the Web.
  • Date of last revision- It indicates when the article was last revised.

The Internet Detective is an interactive online tutorial. This may be helpful.