1. 1 RESEARCHING USING ONLINE SOURCES _____________________________ A Guide to Searching for and Evaluating Web Pages on the Internet

2. 2 How to Research on the Internet There are two main tools to use to search the internet: SEARCH ENGINES and SUBJECT DIRECTORIES

3. 3 What is the difference between a Search Engine and a Subject Directory ? Search Engines use specialist software programs to find web pages and index all the words in each one. The search engine captures the largest amount of information on the web - but no search engine lists everything available. Subject Directories are created by human researchers who select web pages and categorise them by subject. This means that they are more selective than indexes.

4. 4 Which is the best search tool to use? Subject directories are best if you are doing a broad search and need background information on a subject, or if you are not sure which aspect of a subject to focus on. Google Subject Directory

5. 5 Search Engines Search Engines are better to use if you know exactly what information you need. You can type directly into the search box the words that describe the information required. Search box Google Search Engine

6. 6 Choosing search terms It is a good idea to write a sentence describing your search topic in your own words, then identify the key words, or concepts, to use in a search. As an example, what do you think are the keywords to use in a search from the following sentence? What methods can be used for the treatment of a spider phobia?

7. 7 KEY CONCEPTS What methods can be used for the treatment of a spider phobia? Use these underlined words as your search terms

8. 8 Is the order of the search words important? If you use the Google search engine it looks for pages which contain all your search words. This means that it often produces the most relevant results. However the order in which the terms are entered can affect the results. Decide which are the most important terms and enter them first.

9. 9 In our example I would suggest that the words Spider and Phobia are the most important, as they immediately identify the subject of the search, followed by treatment which defines the particular area of the subject we are studying. Therefore I would enter the words in that order.

10. 10 What the Google Search Results Screen Means Title of the web page - click to enter web page Phrase from page that includes highlighted search words Web page address Number of web pages found Click to find similar web pages Click on cache to find search words highlighted in the original text

11. 11 More hints on search techniques___________________________ Use as many relevant search words as possible, as this will narrow your search and produce the best results. Include any geographical information to limit the search to particular country or area e.g. UK or Gosport. If date or period is important include this in the search box e.g. eighteenth century or 2002 If you need statistics on an issue make sure you include the word statistics. If you are searching for words that need to be positioned in the text immediately next to each other use quotation marks to enclose the words e.g. “Industrial Revolution” or Dartmoor National Park”

12. 12 Need more information about searching the Internet? _________________________________ Use the ‘Help Pages’ from the search engine that you are using. These pages are really useful and provide lots of search tips on how to get the best results

13. 13 How do you Evaluate the Relevance and Reliability of a Web Page? Remember that anybody can put anything on the Internet. Just because it appears as a web page it doesn’t mean that the information is reliable.

14. 14 Web Page Evaluation checklist Relevance - Is the information relevant to your research question? Authorship - Is there an identified author of the document? What are the producers qualifications and credentials Bias - is the web page produced by a group or organisation who are trying to advocate their own particular views? Date - is the document dated, how current is the information? Links - are any links to other sites and if so are they reliable?

15. 15 Relevance Does the information answer your questions? Does it support your own ideas on a topic, or does it provide counter arguments that you need to think about? Does it provide a useful case study to illustrate points in your work?

16. 16 Authorship Who has Produced the Web Page? The web page address can provide a clue. The letters at the end of the main address can identify the type of page owner. For example:.gov is a government produced page (followed by.uk for British government).ac.uk is produced by a British academic body (.edu in America).org is a non-profit making organisation.co is a British company (.com American)

17. 17 Other Ways of Finding who has produced the web page. Click on the Home page link which is usually found on the top of a web page or on a side menu. This should provide the name of the producer. Check for a link from the Home Page which provides details of the producers credentials and aims e.g. ABOUT US, BACKGROUND, BIOGRAPHY or ORGANISATION PHILOSOPHY

18. 18 BIAS Is the web page trying to persuade you to conform to the producer’s views? Does it provide a balanced view of the topic,or is it a one-sided argument? For example, check out the two following websites which are concerned with the effects of genetically modified food. What views do you think that each is advocating? www.foodfuture.org.uk www. Greenpeace. org.

19. 19 Dating a web page If the actual page does not display a date it can be difficult to determine when the information was produced. If using Netscape Navigator you can try clicking on View on the main menu bar. Then select Page Info from the drop down menu. This sometimes contains the date that the page was last modified or updated. With Internet Explorer you could try Page Source from the View menu, which occasionally provides the date that the page was created. Otherwise check for the latest date of any statistics or data included in the page.

20. 20 Links Links to other websites from a web page can also help you check reliability Are they well chosen to relate to the original page, with identified producers? Do they still work? This can also help you determine whether the original page is reasonably recent or at least updated regularly.