Evaluating Online Sources

Evaluating Websites
WHAT & WHY?
Make sure a website is credible by looking at the type of website and its
purpose (as in being related to your topic).
WHO?
The author, their potential bias, and if their qualified or have enough
experience to talk on the topic.
HOW?
If the information on the website can be verified, or there are references
provided, and whether the references are liable.
WHEN?
When the information was last updated.

How to Evaluate Sources

Consider The Website And Where It Is Coming From
- .com
o Is it providing a service or product?
o Does it have ads?
o Usually, .com or commercial websites have a motive to make money
- .org
o Is the website supported by a group, organization, or company?
o What does the group stand to gain by convincing others of its points?
o .orgs are created by non-profit or for-profit organizations or associations
- .edu or .gov
o These types of websites are more likely to provide objective information and
don’t contain ads or sponsored links because they’re highly regulated/secured

- Tildes (~) or percent (%) signs followed by personal names or initials usually indicated
personal websites.
- Research the author to see if they are credible, have experience, or know what they are
talking about before trusting them.
o A red flag for a website is not being able to find a designated authors name.
- Check if the website has any in-text citations, references, or links going to other
websites for evidence that is being used in the text.
o Do links work or are updated?
Evaluating Online Sources
Is Wikipedia a Credible Source?
- Wikipedia doesn’t claim themselves to be a scholarly source, however it’s a great
collection of general information.
- According to Cornell, Wikipedia isn’t scholarly but the sources it’s citing might be but is
too general because it is not reviewed by experts.
- Encyclopedias like Britannica or the World Book aren’t slidable themselves when getting
to a professional level. To say that they’re better than Wikipedia isn’t correct either.
o A study in Nature in 2005 showed that when Britannica and Wikipedia were
directly compared, they had a similar number of errors in their science articles.
Out of the 42 articles they looked at, there were 8 serious errors, 4 from each.
When it came to spelling mistakes, Wikipedia had 162 compared to 123 from
Britannica.