Criteria for Evaluating Internet Documents Internet research often produces a large number of documents. Some of these documents may not be relevant or reliable. Below are some criteria to consider when reviewing and evaluating Internet documents. * Source of the document. Is it reliable? What is its bias? One quick way to check the source is looking at the web address: .edu (school or university), .gov (government body), .com (business or general site), .org (non-profit organization). * Relevance of the document's title. * Author of the document. * Date of the document. * Relevance of the excerpt (shown in the list of search results on search engines), and location of search terms. * Rank of the documents in the search results list. (CAUTION: Don't rely too much on the ranking system. Sometimes the treasure is buried.) * Avoid duplicate documents. * Use the "Search within Results" function. Google.com and Altavista.com have this option. The World Wide Web offers students, teachers and researchers the opportunity to find information and data from all over the world. The Web is easy to use, both for finding information and for publishing it electronically. Because so much information is available, and because that information can appear to be fairly ìanonymousî, it is necessary to develop skills to evaluate what you find. When you use a research or academic library, the books, journals and other resources have already been evaluated by scholars, publishers and librarians. Every resource you find has been evaluated in one way or another before you ever see it. When you are using the World Wide Web, none of this applies. There are no filters. Because anyone can write a Web page, documents of the widest range of quality, written by authors of the widest range of authority, are available on an ìeven playing fieldî. Excellent resources reside along side the most dubious. The Internet epitomizes the concept of Caveat lector: Let the reader beware. This document discusses the criteria by which scholars in most fields evaluate print information, and shows how the same criteria can be used to assess information found on the Internet. Information is intellectual property, and intellectual property is protected by the law. Do you know and understand the meaning of copyright? Go to Information on Copyright and Intellectual Property for explanations of fair use (educational and scholarly use of copyrighted information), safe use of Web-based information, protecting your rights and those of authors you quote in your dissertation, and other related questions. © 1996 Elizabeth E. Kirk Last modification: 1.4.2000 |