The Web is a valuable information source, but for the purposes of academic research, you must select reliable websites. Here are a few questions that can help you determine the reliability of a website and its appropriateness for your research.
What is the purpose of the information?
Make sure the website doesn’t promote a product or an ideology or present an organization bias.
Who is the author, publisher, or source? Are they an authority on the subject?
Ask yourself not only “who wrote this?” but “why should I care what s/he writes?” Look for the author’s identity and also any information about their educational background, professional credentials, etc. This information can often be found under an “About Us” link.
Does the information relate to your topic? (relevance)
Make sure that the web pages are relevant to your research and contain information that is thorough and substantially covers your subject matter.
How current is the information?
Look for the date of publication to ensure that information presented is up-to-date, esp. if currency of information is crucial to your research/academic field.
How accurate/truthful is the content?
Compare the web page to related sources, electronic or print, for assistance in determining its accuracy. Look for factual information (historical or statistical), research/fieldwork observations, as well as citations/footnotes and list of references/bibliography.
Once you find books, articles, essays, web pages or other documents on a research topic, it is very important to evaluate those sources of information to try to develop a general understanding of the purpose, value, perspective and quality of any source you use in your research.
