1. Today’s Goal
Today’s objective is that you learn how to be critical in selecting the sites you are getting information from.
You will learn how to analyze how good a site is and if it is appropriate for you to cite.

2. Stay away from these…
Start with looking at the URL domain, (between and the first /)
personal pages
Has a personal name followed by a title, a percent sign, or words like “people”, “users” or “members”
a commercial site like aol.com or geocities.com? (mostly any .com)

3. These are great to use A government site? “.gov”, “.mil”
An education domain like “.edu” or a nonprofit organization “.org”
A government site? “.gov”, “.mil”
Is the country code from the country you are looking for? “.us”, “.ca”, “.uk”

4. Narrow your search
If searching with Google – Advanced Search, you can also narrow your results by Site or domain.
For example, search google advanced search “web site evaluation” and limit the domain to site:.edu
Or limit your results to a domain like .org or .gov

5. Is this site/author credible?
You need to critically question everything you find on the web. Where did the author retrieve the information? Are they reliable sources?
Well-developed pages include links to other pages with the opposite point of view
Do the links work?

6. Evaluating Information Sources
You will need to ask these questions, whether your source is printed or online, if it is a book, an image or article from a journal, newspaper, a website or any source you want to cite:
Authority
Timeliness
Accuracy
Coverage

7. Authority
Is there an author? What is the author’s affiliation? Has the author produced more works? Are these works cited? Can you contact the author?
Is the domain in the URL “.edu” (education), “.com” (commercial) or “.gov (Government)?”

8. Timeliness
Is there a date when the research started or the document was created?
Has the document been revised, edited or updated?
If it is a website, when was the last time the site was updated?

9. If it contains graphs, charts or images, are the sources clear?
Accuracy
Is the source in a peer-reviewed publication or journal? If not, can you verify the factual information or who is responsible for the information?
If it contains graphs, charts or images, are the sources clear?

10. Coverage For online sources from a website, is the document complete?
Make sure citations and quotations are correct.

11. Do they have: Let’s test some out! Accuracy Authority Timeliness
For each example on the board discuss with your partner if they are a good or bad source and give reasons why or why not.
Do they have:
Accuracy
Authority
Timeliness
Coverage