When you decide to use information found on the Internet, you must keep in mind that anyone can become a publisher on the Web. Unlike libraries, where information is hand-selected by information experts, and unlike peer-reviewed academic publications, much of the information available on the Internet is of unknown quality. In addition, millions of websites have been abandoned by their creators, are not updated or reviewed, contain broken links or undated, un-attributed documents. There are also fake websites, created for fraud or satirical purposes. Therefore, it is up to you, as the user, to assess the quality of information you find and its suitability for a particular use.

You can apply a number of criteria to information you find to help you assess its validity and quality.

Authority: why should you trust this author/institution/document?

• > Who is the author of the information? Is the author’s name provided? What are his or her credentials? Is he or she affiliated with a known organisation? To find out more about the author you can use www.alexa.com, or Google.
• > Has the information undergone any sort of peer review or publication process? Was it published in an academic journal? Is it posted on the website of a known and well-established organisation?
• > Does the website provide clear and unambiguous information about the organisation which maintains it? Does it have an “About Us” section and contact details? If the identity of the organisation is ambiguous, you should hesitate to trust the information presented.
• > Do other known authors in the field cite this author or document?

Accuracy: is the information correct?

• > Can you cross-check the information with other authoritative sources in the field?
• > Does the information appear to have a particular political or ideological bias?
• > Evaluate the writing style in general. Is it academic? Does it include citations? Does it present different points of view?
  
  Currency: is the information up-to-date?
  
  

• > Check when the information was published and last updated – is it current? Look for publication date, last updated date, and information about updates in the About Us section.
• > Are the links in the document valid? The presences of broken links can tell you a lot about whether a document is currently maintained.
  
  Purpose and Audience
  
  

• > Who do you think are the intended users of this resource? Is it aimed at the general public, at high school students, academics or someone else?
• > Consider the appearance of the website. Websites with lot of flashy advertisements, pop-up windows, moving text, etc. are less likely to contain serious academic work. This may not be a general rule – but it’s a good clue.
• > Why was the page put on the Web? To inform, explain, sell, entice, share, disclose, satire or parody? The purpose of the web page gives you important clues about whether the information is likely to be suitable for academic use.
  
  URL
  

The URL (or address) of the page you are visiting provides some potentially very useful clues as the quality of the information. The information provided in a URL is described and explained here.

Wikipedia

This online information resource deserves a few specific words due to its growing popularity as a resource tool. Wikipedia is a user-compiled online encyclopaedia covering a vast number of topics, with versions available in a number of languages. It is potentially very useful within the research process: it is user-friendly and easy to access, articles are often clearly written and well researched, it covers many unusual and interesting topics, and the hyperlinks to both internal and external sources for each topic can lead readers to many relevant resources. However, it is essential for an academic researcher to treat Wikipedia articles with the same degree of scrutiny as any online resource, as explained above. Wikipedia itself warns in its “Researching with Wikipedia page ” that information in its articles may not be accurate, comprehensive or unbiased, and provides useful guidelines for researchers. You are highly advised to read these pages if you wish to use Wikipedia as a source for your research.

Final advice…

It is also important to remember that although you can easily download, store, modify, copy and distribute information in digital format, copyright regulation may prohibit some such uses. If you plan to use information found on the Internet for anything other than personal use, you should check copyright information and obtain appropriate consent if needed. Also, if you plan to use information for assignments or other academic use, please remember to cite your sources correctly.

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Summarized by the WOUGNET TechSupport team from a Diplo Foundation course, using material from The University Libraries, University of Houston and The Virtual Training Suite.