Wikipedia can be a good source for factual information or a topic overview, but beware of controversial topics and always verify information in reliable academic sources such as encyclopedias or scholarly journals. Always check with your professor to see if this source may be used for an assignment. Regardless, you may find the bibliographical references and website addresses at the end of the entries very useful for your research.
Follow these 5 links for more details on questions you should ask yourself when evaluating websites:
Points to Consider:
1. Purpose--Why was the site created?
2. Authority-- Who are site's author(s) and their credentials? Who is the sponsor?
4. Audience-- Who is the site designed for?
· is the site to inform? Entertain? Educate? Share information? Influence views? Advertise or sell a product? Communicate?
Express an opinion?
· the purpose will influence the content and help you to determine any bias
2. Authority. Consider the site's author(s) and their credentials? Who is the sponsor?
Author:
· examine the home page of the website to find information about the author(s)
· is there sufficient information about the organization or individual?
· look for links that say "About us," "Background," "Biography," "Staff," etc.
· can the webmaster be contacted?
· are the author's credentials and affiliation provided? Can you find information elsewhere?
Sponsor:
· check the URL- what is the domain?
· is the sponsor of the site appropriate for your research?
· will there be a bias?
· org - information about the organization, most likely to have a bias
· com - about a product
· gov - government sponsored
. edu - educational institution
· is the site hosted by an agency, institution or company?
· is the material useful, unique or accurate? Derivative, repetitious or doubtful?
· the coverage should reflect the intended audience (see Audience below)
· is the site comprehensive?
· what information is included? Is the information factual or opinion? Is the information documented?
· does the site include original information or simply links to other sites?
· how useful are these other sites?
· does the site focus on a narrow area or does it include related topics?
· what is the level of detail provided about the subject?
· what kind of information is provided? Factual? Opinions? Statistics? Reports?
· where does the information come from? Can this be easily determined? Are the sources documented?
· is the information consistent with information found in other sources?
Permanency
· evaluate the timeliness of the site
· are dates provided?
· are the links still active?
· when was the site last updated?
· check Wayback Machine for revisions
- Is the site designed for scholarly research?
Undergraduate, graduate, or faculty?
Professionals?
- Is the site targeted towards a popular audience, or age group such as high school students, teenagers or seniors?
- Is the site an online journal, news or magazine (e-zine)?
- Is it an online public access catalogue (OPAC)?
- Blog or other personal website? Social network?
- Is it accessible through the WWW or Internet? Are there costs involved?