Today many students research begin their research on the Internet.  The wide variety of web pages available and the speed of web-based searching make it both easy and attractive.  As with books, articles, and audio-visual items, however, a source should be evaluated before it is used.  This is extremely important when using Internet sites because there is no control or oversight over the content found on web sites, so “information” from a web site can be anything from terribly useful to outright lies.  

When evaluating Internet sources, consider relevance, currency, author's credentials, content, and bibliography.  Very often few sources exist to help in evaluating Internet sources.  This means that the researcher has to use caution, common sense, and logic when evaluating Internet sources.  The first step is to see which of the above information is given on the web page being examined.  For example, does the web page list who the author or authors were, on what date or dates the page was updated, or if a bibliography is included?  Answering these questions really answers questions on currency, author’s credentials, and bibliography.  If these questions cannot be answered, then more scrutiny on relevance and content are essential.

Since many web pages do not list the author or authors, the next step is to look at who maintains or hosts the page.  At the very least, a page’s address or, URL, can offer useful information.  The last part of an URL is the “domain.”  This three-letter code indicates the producer or sponsor of the site.  The most common domains are:

.com--commercial organizations.  They may be trying to sell goods or services, so be cautious.

.edu--an educational institution.  Note that often student-established pages have .edu domains, so be cautious.

.gov--government agencies.  These are usually fairly reliable sources of information.

.net--network.

(Also be aware that the combination of the tilde (~) and a name (e.g. ~Ryan) often indicates a personal homepage whose content is not checked by anyone other than the person who runs that homepage.)

There are many things to look at in a web page that will help to identify if it is relevant and has useful content.  Look at the length, internal logic, sources, and other links offered on the page.  If a page is very short and concise, does it offer information in any more depth or utility than an encyclopedia?  If the page is longer and seems to have clear content, can you identify a bias in the page?  For example, a web page dealing with abortion that refers to abortionists as “bloody-handed mass-murderers,” shows an obvious bias.  This overt bias might well indicate that this page may not provide either a balanced or objective set of information.  Another very useful thing is to look at the links provided by the page.  If a web page does not list its sources of information, but it connects the user to pages that do list sources, then perhaps some good research went into the creation of this page.  If the pages it links to are also without sources, then perhaps you should be hesitant to use this page.

Please note that many web pages are updated frequently—while others are not.  A page that is not updated frequently is likely to be offering obsolete data, or perhaps it is not being updated anymore because nothing new is being added.  If that is the case, how long will this page exist for you to go back to? 

All of these questions can help you to determine if a web page is reliable and credible.  Given the vast number of web sites in existence, if one site is of questionable value, continue to look for better sites!  Whenever you use a web page always indicate the day and time that the page was accessed.  That way if someone else visits that page later and the information or quotation you used isn’t there, the other researcher can check to see if the information was erased or moved during the update.