Page 42 - Web Search-En-V3

Evaluating the credibility of web sources

Anyone, in theory, can publish on the Web; therefore, it is imperative for users of the
Web to develop a critical eye to evaluate the credibility of Internet information. Searching for
sources on the WWW involves using a search engine, a directory, or some combination of
these two. Because there is so much information on the Web, good and bad, finding what you
want is not an exact science and can be time consuming.

These guidelines are to help you become familiar with various types of Web resources
and the reliability of the information.

1. Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the
field about which she or he is providing information?

2. What are the author's qualifications, credentials, and connections to the subject ?
3. With what organization or institution is the author associated?
4. Does the author have publications in peer reviewed publications, on the Web?
5. Are there clues that the author/s are biased? For example, is he/she selling or promoting

a product?
6. Is the Web information current? If there are several out-of-date links that do not work

or old news, what does this say about the credibility of the information?
7. Does the information have a complete list of works cited, which reference credible,

authoritative sources?
8. Can the subject you are researching be fully covered with WWW sources or should print

sources provide balance?
9. On what kind of Web site does the information appear?

Here are some types of Web sites :
• Personal Home Pages.
• Special interest sites.
• Professional sites.
• News and Journalistic sites.
• Commercial sites.

10.Deconstruct the URL to find out the source of the information.
Some Common Domain Names:
• .com; means Commercial
• .ac; means Academic
• .co; means Company
• .edu; means Education
• .gov; means Government
• .mil; means Military
• .net; means Network
• .org; means Organization

11.Remember that social media sites are not suitable as references for researchers, such as
Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, etc

35 Training unit in the field of technological information - at the Supreme Council of Universities © Intellectual property rights 2024