Information Overload: Credibility, Authority, Authenticity Criteria for Evaluating Web Information

Who? Authority

• Who is the author (individual, organization)? Is it clear who has ultimate responsibility for the content of the material?
• Is there an About Us section?
• Is contact information given so that you can contact the author for clarification or more information?
• What are the author's qualifications (occupation, years of experience, position, education, other)?
• What is the author's institutional affiliation, if any? (educational institution, nonprofit organization, company, other?)
• example

What? Accuracy

• Does the site appear to be well-researched?
• Are there editors and fact checkers?
• Are there references to sources of information supporting any statements made or viewpoints held?
• Are the facts documented so that you can verify the content in another source?
• Does the site include grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?
• If links to other sources are listed, are they quality sites?
• example

When? Currency

• When was the site created?
• When was the content last updated?
• Is it current enough for your needs?
• Are there any "dead" links?
• example

Where? Publisher

• Where is the site published? What is the domain?
• How reputable is the publisher?
• Does the publisher take responsibility for the content?
• Will it be there tomorrow?
• example

Why? Purpose & Objectivity

• Why does the site exist?
• Is there a statement of mission, purpose, target audience?
• Does it provide many opinions? Balanced?
• Does it contain mostly opinions or facts?
• Is there bias in the information and opinions presented?
• Is it selling? Promoting? Ranting? Sponsoring?
• Does the site represent the agenda of a political, religious, or social group or institution?
• If there is advertising on the site, is it clearly differentiated from the informational content?
• example

How? Structure/Navigation

• Is the organization of the site easy to understand?
• Is it easy to navigate between different sections of the site?
• Is there a link to return to the first page of the site?
• Does it offer a table of contents or site index?
• Can you search the site?
• Do graphics on the site add or detract from the document itself?
• What is required to view the page? Registration? Money? Personal Information?
• example

Get Other Opinions - What do others say?

• Find other web pages that link to this page.
  If other pages link to a site, then they recommend that site for one reason or another. Why do they recommend it? They could be fans or detractors of the site.
  
  
  • Use AlltheWeb's URL Investigator.
    Paste the url into AlltheWeb's search box.
    
    
  • Do a link: search in Google, AltaVista, or another search engine that provides this feature.
    InGoogle, type link:url into the search box. If you find no links, try a shorter portion of the url, stopping after each /.
    ex. link:http://www.washington.edu/
    
    
• Look the page up in a reputable directory that evaluates its contents (Librarian's Index, Infomine, About.com, or a specialized directory that you trust.
  Good directories include a tiny fraction of the web, so inclusion in a directory can be noteworthy. The sites listed in most directories have been selected by humans who have evaluated the site in some way before linking to it.
  

• Go to the directory and search for the title of the site that you are investigating.
  
  
• Look for the publisher if you can't find a specific page from a larger site.
  

• Look up the author's name in Google or another directory that supports this.
  "Googling someone" can be revealing, but be sure to consider the source. If the viewpoint is radical or controversial, expect to find detractors.
  
  
  • In Google, search for the name as a phrase.
    ex. "Jane Doewebauthor"
    
    
  • In Google, search for the name as a phrase with * between the first and last name.
    ex. "John * Doewebauthor"
    

Will you find better resources using the library databases? Would a book or journal article be more appropriate?

Sources for information used on this page were adapted from:

• Evaluating Web Pages : Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources
  http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

Additional Readings:

• Stanford Web Credibility Research
  http://www.webcredibility.org/

For reference help, contact Jessica Albano (Communication Studies Librarian at the UW Libraries)

Created: 19 April 2004